Bits & Pieces
I’ll be running a bits and pieces feature throughout the down time in the lead up to the entry draft and free agency, typically featuring an FA profile, prospect update and news links avec commentary.
FA Profile:
On the topic of potential FA targets, let’s take a look at Detroit’s Jason Williams.
The 2008-09 season, split between service for Atlanta and Columbus, poses as an interesting glimpse into Williams’ perhaps understated offensive ability. Moving to Columbus at the mid season mark, Williams was tried in a more prominent offensive role for a Blue Jackets side short on offensive options outside of Rick Nash. Posting 29 points in 39 games after the trade, Williams notched seven powerplay goals and 19 total on the year. If placed among a generally young forward group expected to go through streaky spells of production, Williams’ track record of thriving in added responsibility and producing in accordance with icetime represents a potentially valuable option for coach Wilson.
Averaging around ten minutes a game in 2009-10, it was a slow season offensively with 15 points in an injury-shortened 44 game season (broken fibula). In large part, Williams functioned in the bottom six of a Red Wings organization known under head coach Mike Babcock for emphasizing the value of hard work and sound positional hockey.
Williams could be a bottom six option for Burke with a number of expiring contracts in that area of the depth chart. A London native, one could suppose Williams may have interest in suiting up for his hometown club and and would likely come cheaper than his current 1.5 million cap hit after a season of slowed production. A 2002 Cup winner in his first stint with Detroit, the speedy Williams is experienced and still very much in his prime at 30 years of age. Seems like a good fit in Wilson’s system.
Prospect Update:
The 2009-10 season of 6’6 defenceman Eric Knodel, an off-the-chart project pick in the fifth round at the 2009 entry draft, was a tale of two parts befitting the development curve facing the Pennsylvania native.
Playing for the Des Moines Bucaneers of the United States Hockey League (the top junior – 20 and under – hockey league in the United States), the first eleven games of his 2009-10 campaign were a glimpse of the potential of the massive, offensively-inclined blueliner. A unique breed, Knodel stormed out of the gate with eight points in his first eleven appearances. Despite the hot start, Knodel went on to post just 20 points over a 50-game season. The total nevertheless put him in second in USHL defensive scoring, but the disparity accentuated Knodel’s inconsistency.
What Leafs brass will really look for in Knodel’s performances next season with the University of New Hampshire will be an improvement on his -26 ’09-10 plus/minus rating. His ability to develop his own-zone play will be a major make or break it factor in determining whether or not Knodel has any form of NHL future. Additionally, Leafs management will look for the friendly giant to establish a greater truculence to his game to better employ his frame in ways which punish the opposition physically. For a player of Knodel’s measurables to possess natural offensive ability makes him well worth the effort, and hopefully patient development ends up reaping dividends one day.
From the Links:
News is slow in Leafland. Just read this (don’t actually) if in need of further evidence.
- Dave Perkins, however, nicely summarizes the Jussi Rynnas coup:”The best news for the Maple Leafs with the signing of yet another goaltender, this time Finn Jussi Rynnas, is that all it costs them is money — and they have no shortage of that. He didn’t cost them a draft choice, which means the Leafs can direct whatever picks they have this time at the other necessities, and he provides depth at a vital position, even though he is likely to start off with the Marlies. If the plan goes according to the early estimates, and J.S. Giguere is attractive to someone at the trade deadline, a year from now the Leafs will have two cost-efficient young goalies in tandem, with Jonas Gustavsson having had a pretty good taste of the NHL by that time. And if he struggles, Rynnas will get his opportunity. In any sport, you win when you have a lot of good players. He still needs to prove himself an NHL-calibre goalie, but even if he doesn’t, all they’re out will be the dollars.”
- From last week, Perkins also muses on the possibility of growing impatience from the Toronto sports fan for the city’s failures across the sporting spectrum.I subscribe to the theory that MLSE upper management is comprised of marketing gurus with a past of poor judgment when it comes to making the critical decisions that affect the on-ice/field/court product; to be clear this is not in any way suggesting that MLSE lacks a will to win where financial objectives are being satisfied (it’s called PLAYOFF REVENUE), rather that some bad hires have been made under Tanenbaum and Peddie. However, I do believe the work of Brian Burke is reversing these fortunes in a big way; take a look at the successful Jussi Rynnas pursuit for example.Rynnas did not include Toronto in his North American tour. Rather, Burke and Francois Allaire (described by Kevin McGran recently as a goaltending rockstar in terms of his allure to netminding prospects) visited Rynnas in Finland in hopes of selling him on the Toronto possibility in a similar fashion to the similarly successful Gustavsson pursuit. These are strong signs of a restoration of respect for Leafs management and it starts with Burke and snowballs outwards. Bringing in respected personnel makes Toronto a desired destination for other respected personnel. With this lesson in mind, let’s hope the snowball continues rolling outwards and influences the way the rest of the MLSE conglomerate does it’s business.
