Confirmed with Link: CBJ sign college UFA Jack Williams to 2 year ELC

[CBJWerenski8]

 

[CBJx614]

 

[majormajor]

I thought the Jackets were always trying to sign college UFAs under Jarmo - we got Robinson, McKown, and probably half a dozen guys I forget about.

Comparing him to Mckown, Jack Williams just turned 23, so a couple years older than when we signed Mckown, and he's a bit smaller at 5'11 174. But Williams was a better scorer in college, closer to the point per game level.

 

[Double-Shift Lasse]

I thought the Jackets were always trying to sign college UFAs under Jarmo - we got Robinson, McKown, and probably half a dozen guys I forget about.

I was questioning that Portzline tweet too.

 

[Iron Balls McGinty]

I don't think we've ever signed a significant college UFA skill guy. Robinson and McKown seems to have ben depth signings for other reasons like size and speed to fill bottom 6 roles.

Seems to me like Williams has some solid top 6 potential. I don't think we've ever signed a guy who put up as many points with as much scoring potential out of the NCAA but it also sounds like does it all pretty well playing in a conference like Hockey East.

 

[Nanabijou]

I don't think we've ever signed a significant college UFA skill guy. Robinson and McKown seems to have ben depth signings for other reasons like size and speed to fill bottom 6 roles.

Seems to me like Williams has some solid top 6 potential. I don't think we've ever signed a guy who put up as many points with as much scoring potential out of the NCAA but it also sounds like does it all pretty well playing in a conference like Hockey East.

Blankenburg?

But yeah, Jarmo was pretty active in signing college free agents so I also didn't understand Porty's tweet.

 

[CBJWerenski8]

No offense to the kid, but other than Tyler bozak, have many of these college UFAs amounted to be a top 6 forward/top 4 D/starting G?

Either way it’s never a bad thing to add to the pool. It does make me wonder about how this management team views Brindley as a lot of Williams characteristics and strengths seem to align with his, and you can only have so many of those guys at the pro level

 

[stevo61]

No offense to the kid, but other than Tyler bozak, have many of these college UFAs amounted to be a top 6 forward/top 4 D/starting G?

Either way it’s never a bad thing to add to the pool. It does make me wonder about how this management team views Brindley as a lot of Williams characteristics and strengths seem to align with his, and you can only have so many of those guys at the pro level

Tanev, Kunitz, St.Louis, Oates, Krug, Rafalski... It's actually a decent list with some high end guys. Is the success rate high? No, but it's a free attempt to get a player

Edit: Roloson and Cujo if you want some goalie examples

 

[Nanabijou]

Tanev, Kunitz, St.Louis, Oates, Krug, Rafalski... It's actually a decent list with some high end guys. Is the success rate high? No, but it's a free attempt to get a player

Edit: Roloson and Cujo if you want some goalie examples

Fair point. Being too lazy to do an in-depth analysis, I'm going to over-generalize and say it likely yields a better chance at a productive player than a late round draft pick but lower probability than the first 2-3 rounds. So, it's probably like getting a free mid-round pick.

 

[stevo61]

Fair point. Being too lazy to do an in-depth analysis, I'm going to over-generalize and say it likely yields a better chance at a productive player than a late round draft pick but lower probability than the first 2-3 rounds. So, it's probably like getting a free mid-round pick.

You get the benefit of having a better idea if you have found a late bloomer but the tradeoff is you have to give them a contract. Good tool to use somewhat sparingly but can't go overboard trying to find the one who really makes it

 

[Theo Von]

I thought the Jackets were always trying to sign college UFAs under Jarmo - we got Robinson, McKown, and probably half a dozen guys I forget about.

Comparing him to Mckown, Jack Williams just turned 23, so a couple years older than when we signed Mckown, and he's a bit smaller at 5'11 174. But Williams was a better scorer in college, closer to the point per game level.

josh dunne too who is surprisingly still in the league.

 

[CannonFire1]

This seems like a good way to add some skill for the Monsters.

 

[majormajor]

josh dunne too who is surprisingly still in the league.

He's had one NHL game this year. My surprise is that we didn't keep him for Cleveland and as a depth call-up because he's good for both roles.

 

[Cowumbus]

Already better than Kunin

 

[Iron Balls McGinty]

Blankenburg?

But yeah, Jarmo was pretty active in signing college free agents so I also didn't understand Porty's tweet.

Was Blankenburg highly touted or was he just a character guy who felt was worthy of a shot because we had eyes on Kent Johnson at the same time because we drafted him?

Glad he's been healthy and doing well in Nashville though.

 

[majormajor]

Was Blankenburg highly touted or was he just a character guy who felt was worthy of a shot because we had eyes on Kent Johnson at the same time because we drafted him?

Blankenburg was definitely highly touted as in talked about more so than Williams, though those conversations don't necessarily mean small-averse NHL clubs were more interested in Blankenburg. Who knows about that.

I'm glad for him too and I hope Blanks makes us bitterly regret letting him go. He's still on Nashville's top pair! I haven't seen him much but he's still putting up very good underlying stats (better than our middle pair guys).

 

[Theo Von]

 

[Iron Balls McGinty]

Blankenburg was definitely highly touted as in talked about more so than Williams, though those conversations don't necessarily mean small-averse NHL clubs were more interested in Blankenburg. Who knows about that.

I'm glad for him too and I hope Blanks makes us bitterly regret letting him go. He's still on Nashville's top pair! I haven't seen him much but he's still putting up very good underlying stats (better than our middle pair guys).

More importantly, he's gone longer than 2 weeks at a time without being injured for Nashville. Obviously that was his biggest issue in Columbus/Cleveland was the constant injuries. Maybe he found a way to deal with that better. I was fearing his career was essentially done when he missed most of last year with lingering concussion issues if I'm not mistaken.

Still not sure how highly touted he was. When the CBJ signed him, it was only for the rest of the 21-22 season under a "1 year deal". They could have walked away and not given him a multi year deal even though the CBJ retained his rights for his 2nd contract. He was definitely more recognizable to us midwesterners because he played in the Big Ten on a team with another CBJ prospect. I think most people, myself included don't know Williams because he played in Hockey East.

Blankenburg had the leadership traits that are attractive and his size was his biggest detriment even tough he was 2nd in NCAA goal scoring for defensemen. I just felt his original signing was low risk, high reward that absolutely paid off until the injury bug hit him. If he didn't impress in his original 7 game tryout we could have easily walked away.

I admittedly know very little about Williams because I don't follow Hockey East. I do know their are some great teams in that conference and he was one of the top scorers in the NCAA. He was obviously playing against some tough competition on a team that wasn't that good.

I don't think the CBJ ever really pursued the absolute top college free agents in the past. I feel like we always went for depth character guys who may or may not pan out. Which is legitimately most undrafted players coming out of college but we never really put the work in to sign any big dogs coming out of NCAA.

Perhaps DW wants to be more aggressive in that route.

 

[Iron Balls McGinty]

Kind of scrolled through that video ad it looks like he's got a nice quick shot from between the circles and gets lots of in close goals.

 

[CBJWerenski8]