justin williams

As we barrel towards July 1, Rangerstown has been ablaze with discussion about how to fill in the vacancy left by the departure of Derek Stepan.  The crop of available centers notoriously thin, headlined by 37-year old Joe Thornton.  Other options include Martin Hanzal, Mike Fisher, Sam Gagner, and old pal Brian Boyle.  While all are solid players in their own right, none of them really move the needle for the Rangers, who are “rebuilding on the fly” but also trying to remain in contention (as evidenced by yesterday’s re-signing of Brendan Smith).

There’s only one name in the free agent crop of forwards that has intrigued me since season’s end: Justin Williams.  I realize that the mere mention of his name is like a dagger to the heart for many of us who still feel the dull pain of the 2014 final lingering, but hear me out.

Williams is a consistently solid, possession-driving forward who can play in all situations.  He’s a lock for 20+ goals.  His playoff performances are the stuff of legend (even if they are beaten to death by the NBC Sports broadcasters).

At 35, Williams is two years younger than Thornton and Patrick Marleau, and would almost certainly come at a lower cost.  His cap hit last year was $3.25 million, meaning the Rangers wouldn’t have to break the bank to secure his services for the next two seasons.

Now, the obvious counterpoint to all of this is that Williams doesn’t play center.  That’s true (though he did take over 100 faceoffs last season, and won 54.7% of them), but what if the Rangers rolled out something like this on opening night:

Kreider-Zibanejad-Zuccarello
Nash-Hayes-Vesey
Buchnevich-Miller-Williams
Grabner-Nieves (or other fourth line C)-Fast

This is all pure speculation of course, but moving Miller to center in the wake of losing Stepan isn’t a totally outrageous idea.  Couple that with what we know made the Rangers successful last year (a four line attack) and all of a sudden this picture starts to make some sense.

Of course, we have no idea how things will play out this summer, but it’s always fun to put yourself in Jeff Gorton’s shoes.  We’ll see if Justin Williams is on the Rangers’ radar when the calendar turns to July.

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