Newyorkrangers.com reports that the Rangers have agreed to terms with right wing Jeremy Williams.Williams, 26, skated in 77 games with the Grand Rapids Griffins of the American Hockey League (AHL) last season, registering 32 goals and 31 assists for 63 points, along with 55 penalty minutes. He established AHL career-highs in games played, goals, points and shots (210).
Williams, who spent last year in the Detroit organization, was the first player since Sergei Fedorov to score in his first game of each of his first four NHL seasons. He also has the rare distinction of having scored in each of his first three NHL games. Williams has also played with the Maple Leafs.
...i wonder if this is Sather's backup plan since the Rangers aren't getting Kovalchuk.
For Williams video highlights click here.
22 comments:
I like the deal-adding to the AHL roster with proven players that can take the spot of our young players moving up.
Hmm...I'm not sure what to think. Cool?
When I saw the headline, I thought Jason Williams and got excited. I like him.
As a former Detroiter and part time Wings fan (glad they are not in the same conference as NYR, or I would have to choose one), I know both Williams-es, albeit Jeremy only briefly. From what I read last year when DET picked him up, he is solid, but probably an AHL filler for call-ups. I think he is pretty small for NHL, and he doesn't have the wheels of, say, Zack Parise.
Yet another useless non-move by deaf, dumb and blind Sather
is this what a GM is supposed to be doing in the off season?
Jeremy Williams?
Eminger?
Boogaard?
Marty Biron?
Really? you have to wonder how these moves even happen.
Here is a huge core of diehard fans just craving some Ranger news, perhaps improving our team in key areas.
how about addressing the key problems. somehow moving one of our unmoveable contracts, adding a D-man and adding a top 6 forward since we questionably have only 3.
And this is what we get.
nothing.
knowledgable die hard ranger fans sitting around, desperately hoping that jeremy williams will help this team somehow.
and this follows last seasons inexcusable get rid of betts and orr, sign brashear, overpay kotalik moves.
after the prior years throw-insane money at wade redden and roszival for a long contract.
Fuck you Sather.
please go away.
please.
easy there smashmark, this guy is never gonna play on the rangers, he's there just to fill a spot in hartford...
yea a spot that can be filled with one of our many draft picks, echl players, or chris drury. when is this team gonna wake the fuck up? when is the organization going to finally straighten itself out? this is disgusting that this team's general manager just doesnt understand how hockey, team structure, and a damn salary cap work. and then plugging a hole with a waste of a player? our young guys better play well and wake up glen so he actually does what he says.
smashmark-
Boogaard filled a need in the lineup, as well as Biron.
He resigned one of our top defensive pair, and is working on the other. Christensen, the man who is in the running for centering Gaborik and Vinny Prospal, last year's alternate captain. Brendan Prust has also been resigned. He also signed highly-touted Norwegian winger Mats Zuccarello-Aasen, a player franchises like the Detroit Red Wings were looking to sign.
Although we've lost Shelley and a few prospects, we haven't lost anyone too valuable and kept our young core, which is Tortorella's mission statement this season.
Would you rather have Sather be supremely aggresive and spend money we didn't have, loading up on astronomically bad contracts like he has in the past, or stand pat and let the roster mature, and make moves when he can? Rozy's contract has two years left, where he will be moved, Im sure after the first one is up. Redden can't be waived until the preseason is over, which will create 6 mil in cap room.
You say to move these contracts, but to where? how? when?
You said it yourself. They're unmoveable. I'm sure he's tried, but what team is going to need a overpaid, washed up defenseman that still has FOUR years left on his contract?
Sure, Sather got us into this mess, but it seems like he's trying to fix things or change his ways, or whatever you wanna call it. Seeing him sit on his hands for once is refreshing.
Also, on the whole last-postseason issue, aren't you criticizing him for doing exactly what you're telling him to do now? Fill needs? Be aggressive? Last season that got us Kotalik, Brashear and Higgins, and lost us Betts and Orr.
Look, I don't like what he's gotten us into contract-wise until now. I don't think anyone has. But you have to give the guy credit for not throwing money at the first free agent he sees. He's being a real GM for once, making (mostly) smart decisions when he can, and standing firm when he can't.
If you take a look at the past two/three Stanley Cup Champions, They've grown from a core group of players, not a free-agent spending frenzy.
This offseason, for me, has been a great improvement over the past.
Sorry for the rant :X
Also, I forgot to mention, I like this signing. It adds a winger to our organization that has the potential to be an NHL player. It's a good move in the wake of Corey Locke leaving.
ry-man, players can't just play up to a certain level. echl prospects cant necessarily play at an ahl level yet. Thats why they're in the echl.
Wow who would have thought a post about this guy would have sparked such debate. I love it!!!!
DT, i get it, he isnt going to play, that wasnt my point.
my point was, why is this what Sather is doing? making these senseless non moves?
has he done anything to improve the clearly weak team from last season? i hvent seen anything
and Gary, of course i dont want him to "be supremely aggresive and spend money we didn't have, loading up on astronomically bad contracts"
but just because he made mistakes in the past, doesnt mean he cant go out and do something.
from what i understand, as long as they are under cap at the start of the season, its fine. and also, from what I understand, they can get most of Redden's 6 million off the cap by sending him to the minors.
Therefore, doesnt that give them 6 million (or close to it) to spend?
im not saying kovalchuk is the answer, but who would you rather have on the team, redden or kovalchuk?
the part i dont get is statements like "it seems like he's trying to fix things or change his ways"
how is he changing his ways? he overpaid for boogaard. thats no chance.
and how is he trying to fix things? fixing things would mean getting Redden off the roster for starters, and then finding some team willing to take a chance on Drury. Then finding a goal scorer. then a tough defenseman. he has done NONE of that.
he has done NOTHING essentially. and somehow, that gets translated into him finally doing the right thing.
i dont get it.
i DON'T have to give the guy credit for not throwing money at the first free agent he sees. its not my money.
and as far as smart decisions, wouldnt it have been smarter to sign your number one defenseman FIRST? i think so.
ps kevin,can this be my tryout as guest blogger?
:)
Smashmark
Can Slats at least play a mean pinball?
"There is no fixing this roster, you might add a scorer and a tough D but you are basically still in the same boat of a 1st round exit at best." You can't predict that kind of stuff. Philly went to the finals....no one guessed that.
If Kariya is cheap we should pick him up. The guy can still score.
This kid will only get to the NHL if the existing fowards get hurt or fail to produce. Much like P.A. last year, Williams is a fail safe if third and fourth live scoring becomes an issue.
Personally, I think the NYR are counting on Grachev to have an impact this year.
smashmark
how do you intend trading drury with a full no movement clause which requires his approval for any trade. he'll be here this yr for sure. and if he reverts to 1st 2 yrs here of 20-25 goals he'll be here the final yr as well. otherwise maybe they'll buy him out next summer.
team usa obviously thought he had some value
@Jack-totally agree-how can you predict that outcome. And how can you predict lighting striking the same spot again. For an 8th seed to make it to the finals two years in a row. Odds are stacked against that ever happening.
smashmark-
Its not so simple as sending Redden down to the minors. They have to wait until preseason to do it. So, until then, they dont have 6 million extra in cap room. It's kind of difficult to work with money that might not be off the books when the season starts. That's IF he gets sent down, and IF we can afford to bring up a younger defenseman. IF he doesn't outplay Gilroy, or McDonagh, Eminger or another young defensemen that is going to get a shot at training camp. A lot of IFs to be worried about, when we can see how training camp goes, then take a look at the free agent market and explore our options if his contract is off the books. Maybe we trade for a defenseman, or pick up someone on waivers. The best fix isn't necessarily the most immediate solution.
Also, you must not understand that Kovalchuk isn't going to command 6 million a year, but rather astronomically more than that, and for 10-20 YEARS. He wants a long term deal for money that we don't have. I'm sure they looked into the Kovalchuk situation, but we didn't have the cap room or the confidence in Kovalchuk to commit to him for the next decade.
In regards to the Boogaard contract, if you look at it, the contract really isn't that bad. It fills an important need on the roster, and although I would have liked him to spend about 400,000 less on him, it's not an 2 million or 3 million insane overpayment like he has in the past. I've said before, I'd much rather have Zenon Konopka but things didnt work out that way.
Im not sure where the Drury hate is coming from. He's the center of this team's heart. He's defensively responsible and hardworking. Yes, he may have lost some of his scoring touch, but he was never a 60 goal scorer. He was always considered a hard working, grinder player and a leader. He consistently sacrifices his body to block shots, which shows where his heart is, as our CAPTAIN. He was named captain for a reason, and as someone said it in a post above, Team USA saw something in him to take a chance putting him on the roster to represent his country.
You can't force contract negotiations. Staal's agent wants more money than Sather wants to or can pay. Staal has no arbitration rights, and we can match any offer sheet he is given. Sather is being patient and smart by letting Staal's stock drop. How is that a bad thing? Would you like to commit more money than we have to? Yet again, you're criticizing Sather for making smart, calculated moves with the checkbook. Just because you WANT to sign your #1 defenseman first, doesn't mean you CAN, or its the smart decision to do so.
Everyone is so impatient with wanting to win immediately and win the Stanley Cup right now. It'd be great, but if you take a look at the great teams of this league, they were built from a core, as I've said time and time again. Not bought. Look at Los Angeles, Colorado and Chicago. All young rosters, built from within the organization and sat through a few losing seasons while the roster matured. Now, all of them are competing at the top of the league for the Stanley Cup.
Sather has made moves, resigning the core players we need for this roster to continue in the future. We're taking a chance on MZA as a scoring winger, as well as giving Grachev and the other boys from Hartford a chance to make the team. They're not senseless non-moves, as you said. They're creating depth. Think of it this way, if Biron was on the roster last year and stole one or two games or had given Hank the rest he needed so he wasn't playing hurt and tired at the end of the season, we would have been in the playoffs, not the Flyers, and who knows what could have happened. These signings are creating the organizational depth we lacked last season that could have carried us into the playoffs.
They drafted a tough defenseman (McIlrath) and dealt for one last season in the Gomez deal (McDonagh) who they signed before preseason even started. These guys are going to be given a chance to make the roster when training camp starts.
You said, "i DON'T have to give the guy credit for not throwing money at the first free agent he sees. its not my money," but it is YOUR money. Every dollar that goes into a ticket sale, every penny you spend on merchandise, every hot dog or beer you buy at the games pay the salary of the players on that roster.
I, for one, am glad Sather is finally not throwing money away and I do give him credit, because I've invested myself, my time, and money in this organization, and it'll be nice to see it spent intelligently.
So Gary, assuming you go with the Sather is finally on the right track thinking, you really think that the man that signed that Wade Redden contract, and signed Donald Brashear is capable of rebuilding a team?
hasnt he shown how completely incompetent, out of touch and insane he is?
also, i completely disagree about Staal and Drury. I WISH Drury was all that you said, but he is not, and its painfully obvious.
as to Staal, he is arguably their best young player, and it makes no sense to play games with him, when you know approximately what he is going end up with anyway. its jsut fucking stupid, not smart.
and Boogaard, i like, but he is definitely overpaid, and i would sstill rather have Colton Orr, before the Orr for Brashear for Shelley for Boogaard chain of events.
Sorry Sather will always be deaf dumb and blind. and he CANT play any pinball.
The same guy that built the Edmonton Oilers franchise into the champions they were?
No, but he's on the right track. It seems like he's finally realized the answer to the Rangers woes isn't gonna come with a blockbuster free agent signing, otherwise he would have done it already.
He's finally building from the inside out, which is what great franchises are made of. Draft high, acquire prospects, build the talent and make a run at the playoffs.
If you researched anything about the Staal negotiations, Bobby Orr is asking way too much money for his client as far as the Rangers are concerned. So how is it a bad thing to wait on Staal, see if he gets an offer sheet for something less than what he wants and then match that offer? It's smart business. Signing a player for more money than he's worth is hypocritical of what you're preaching.
On the other side, to make a deal with another organization and get one of these bad contracts off the books, we'd have to sacrifice either some of our prospects or a young player like Callahan or Dubinsky, core players essential to the Ranger's future. That is awful business.
He's staying the course and giving us room to get younger with the depth within our organization which is Tortorella's and the organization's new prerogative.
Last season Drury put up 30+ points and led the team in blocked shots per 60 minutes. He's a great penalty killer and is responsible with the puck. He leads by example, putting his body in front of a 90 mph puck day in and day out. What am I missing here?
Answer me this... If you were Glen Sather, what free agent would you acquire to fit the team's needs and how would you go about it? Because if you can't give me an answer that isn't Ilya Kovalchuk, doesnt lose us a prospect/core young player to the roster, or where the free agent is asking for too much money , then there are no moves to be made and your points are invalid.
Prove me wrong.
smashmark - again drury scored 20-25 goals his 1st 2 yrs here. kills penalties blocks shots takes face offs etc. so lets see which drury we get this yr 1st 2 yrs or last yr. and again team usa liked him on their team in the olympics, drury is certainly not the terrible player redden is.
in other words i disagree with you in a big way.
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