Former captain Williams comes ‘off the couch,’ gets to work in Carolina
RALEIGH, N.C. — Justin Williams is back with the Carolina Hurricanes. The question now is how long it will take him to be ready for game action.
The 38-year-old former captain said Wednesday he isn’t sure exactly when he’ll be ready to play, though he has been skating and working out in hopes of easing the transition back to the ice after he stepped away from the sport last fall.
“Roddy and I, we’ll talk through it,” Williams said of head coach Rod Brind’Amour. “It’s in our hands now. I’m just going to, as I said, work my way back to where I feel comfortable and Roddy feels I’m comfortable to play.
“Listen, you can’t put a time on it. Just whenever it happens, it happens. … We’ve got a great forward core and hopefully I can find a hole somewhere.”
Williams appeared at a news conference Wednesday with team owner Tom Dundon along with president and general manager Don Waddell, saying he didn’t want to be a distraction as he rejoins the teams and continues work to get ready.
“Throughout these last few months, I just knew that maybe perhaps I wanted to come back, I still wasn’t sure,” Williams said. “But if I was going to come back, I knew had to do something. I just couldn’t come right off the couch and hop into a National Hockey League dressing room and think I could do that.
“I’m no dummy. I know that to be elite and play against the world’s best, you can’t just come off the couch after not playing for six months.”
The team announced Tuesday night that it had signed the three-time Stanley Cup champion to a one-year contract for the remainder of the season, with Williams earning a base salary of $700,000 (U.S.) along with the potential to earn another $1.3 million on bonuses.
One of Williams’ Cup wins came with the Hurricanes in 2006. Williams was also the captain last year as the team reached the playoffs for the first time since ’09 and pushed all the way to the Eastern Conference final.