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Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Williams Gives Thrashers’ Offense Options
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This week’s signing of Jason Williams gives Don Waddell two UFA pickups so far this summer, (three if you count Eric Boulton). Clearly, the 5’-11”, 194-pound native of London, Ontario was brought in to address the needs on the right boards.
The way I see this…Williams replaces Mark Recchi who bolted to Tampa Bay. So, in essence, the 40 year old Recchi’s 12 goals, 28 assists and a -16 in 53 games while in Atlanta has been jettisoned and filling the void is the13 goals, 23 assists and a -2 in 43 games from a soon to be 28-year old Williams.
Disclaimer: Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
However, the added bonus is that he also gives options to John Anderson’s O-fense given that he can be plugged in at center as well.
Given the players currently on the roster, you could field a lineup that looks something like this… Erik Christensen could center the top line, putting Kovalchuk to the left and Armstrong to the right. Second line could have Little centering Kozlov and Williams. Third line would have Eric Perrin with Sterling to the right and Stuart to the left. And grinders could be Todd White with Boulton and Thorburn on the flanks…Slater is the healthy scratch.
Now, I’m not 100% sold on Crusher as a #1 center…but I’m willing to give him the first crack at it. I think Little could be that guy somewhere down the road. Regardless, I’m less comfortable with White there. Also, one could point out that someone like Lavallee will have a better than fair chance to make the team…and very well may.
But if you take a look at that collection of players, you can see that coach Anderson has some options at the ready if he needs to switch things up. He could opt to move JW up and over to center the top line with Kovy to the left and Armstrong to the right. Then the second line could consist of Christensen, Kozzy and maybe Stuart. Third line…Little with Sterling and maybe Perrin off to the side. The fourth line would look like last season where the trio of Bolts, Slates and Thorny set up shop. This leaves out White…but that’s a pretty expensive utility forward at over $2 million.
Obviously, one can take the same set of forwards and shuffle them around to suit your own thinking…and I look forward to seeing how you would do just that…but with players like Jason Williams with the ability to play either center or wing, it sure gives Anderson some nice choices.
So, does this cast of players provide better lines then what we were looking at a few weeks ago? To me the answer is … yes. Not quite “there” mind you…but better.
Can Don Waddell make some other moves to make it better still? Well, as my friends in Minn-E-Sooo-tah might say…Oh YEAH, you BET-cha! Maybe White and/or Sterling packaged in a deal could bring in another piece to help finish out the puzzle. Same could be said of Exelby or Klee, especially if the Nikulin deal finally comes through.
But at least Anderson is getting some options to play with now.
The Schedule Is Here! The New Schedule Is Here!
OK, not quite yet. The 2008-09 NHL schedule is set to be released Thursday. However, Ben Wright at The Blueland Blog indicates that sometime Wednesday the first and last games will be announced as well as the three “at large” western opponents.
Other Odds And Ends
Our ol’ pal Craig Custance…now of The Sporting News… has chimed in with his analysis of the offseason moves in the Eastern Conference.
Jason Krog has inked a deal with the Canucks. He obviously can play at the AHL level…I hope he gets a good shot in the NHL with the Canucks.
Darren Eliot loves hockey in July via prospect camps.
Red Wing’s Dallas Drake decided Tuesday that 16 years was enough and has hung up the skates just a month after lifting the cup.
The Islanders came late to this summer’s coach-changing carousel, but indeed did so Monday when they parted ways with Ted Nolan. And here’s what some Islander fans have to say about it.
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