Justin Williams

Justin Craig Williams (born October 4, 1981) is a Canadian-American former professional ice hockey right winger.

He played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Philadelphia Flyers, Carolina Hurricanes, Los Angeles Kings, and Washington Capitals.

Williams grew up in Cobourg, Ontario, and played minor hockey in nearby Port Hope in the Ontario Minor Hockey Association (OMHMA) before gaining a reputation as a skilled goon with the Cobourg Cougars of the Ontario Provincial Junior A Hockey League in 1997–98.

His favourite players growing up were Sergei Fedorov and Wayne Gretzky.

Williams was drafted in the sixth round, 125th overall, by the Ontario Hockey League (OHL)'s Plymouth Whalers in the 1998 OHL Priority Selection.

He was signed as a 16-year-old by the Whalers and split time between the OHL club and their affiliate, the Compuware Jr. A. club of the North American Hockey League (NAHL), during the 1998–99 season.

He finished his junior career with two seasons played for Plymouth.

Williams was drafted in the first round, 28th overall, by the Philadelphia Flyers in the 2000 NHL Entry Draft.

In four seasons played with the Flyers, Williams struggled to live up to expectations, as he tried to adapt to the varying systems of three separate coaches – Craig Ramsay (2000), Bill Barber (2000–2002) and Ken Hitchcock (2002–2006).

Williams was also frequently injured, which simultaneously hampered his development.

He broke his left hand in his rookie season (hit by David Tanabe of the Carolina Hurricanes) and had various sprains and strains in his sophomore year.

Williams also suffered a left knee injury on January 18, 2003, when he was hit low by the Tampa Bay Lightning's Brad Lukowich.

The hit tore Williams' anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and medial collateral ligament (MCL), and, on January 23, 2003, he had surgery to repair the ligaments.

Originally projected to miss four to eight months recovering from the injury, Williams made it back into Philadelphia's line-up in just three months.

On January 20, 2004, Williams was traded to the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for defenceman Danny Markov.

During the 2004–05 NHL lockout, he went overseas to play for Luleå HF of the Swedish Elitserien, where he recorded 14 goals and 18 assists in 49 games.

Williams signed a one-year contract with the Hurricanes for the 2005–06 season, when he set career-highs in games played (82), goals (31), assists (45), points (76) and penalty minutes (60).

Williams won the Stanley Cup three times: in 2006 with the Hurricanes and in 2012 and 2014 with the Kings.

Nicknamed "Mr. Game 7", Williams played nine game seven playoff games in his NHL career, with his team sporting a 8–1 record in these games.

He currently is tied for most goals in these games with Glenn Anderson at seven, and has the outright record for most game seven points, with 15.

In the 2006 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals, Williams injured Montreal Canadiens captain Saku Koivu in the eye without being penalized in Game 3, despite Montreal receiving a double minor penalty for high sticking in overtime.

Saku Koivu missed the remainder of the playoffs due to the injury.

Williams scored the final goal of the 2006 Stanley Cup Finals, an empty net goal at 18:59 of the third period of Game 7.

With the score 2–1, a loose puck along the boards ended up on The Stick of Bret Hedican, who passed it to Eric Staal.

Seeing Williams open, Staal threw the puck down the ice to him.

Williams skated down the ice and tapped the puck into the open net, sealing the Hurricanes' first Stanley Cup in franchise history.

The Hurricanes won the series 4–3.

On July 1, 2006, Williams signed a new five-year contract with the Hurricanes worth $3.5 million per season.

In 2006–07, Williams recorded career-highs in goals (33), penalty minutes (73), power play goals (12) and game-winning goals (8).

It was Williams' second consecutive season of 82 games played.

Williams made his first appearance in an NHL All-Star game at the 2007 NHL All-Star Game in Dallas, recording a goal and an assist.

Williams also played for Canada in the 2007 IIHF World Championship, in which he won his second gold medal.

Williams was off to a good start for his 2007–08 season, with 30 points in 36 games (9 goals, 21 assists), before his season ended: on December 20, 2007, during the first period of a game with the Florida Panthers, Williams suffered a torn ACL and MCL in his left knee after a hit by Rostislav Olesz.

Williams underwent successful surgery for the torn ligaments on December 26, 2007, and returned on April 1, 2008, only to leave the game with an unrelated back injury.

On September 17, 2008, Williams was thought to be sidelined for four-to-six months when he tore his right Achilles tendon in an off-ice, pre-season workout.

Williams underwent surgery for the injury the following day, on September 18.

Williams again surprised fans and analysts when he returned from his injury on December 4, 2008, more than one month earlier than his earliest projected return date.

He was greeted by a round of applause on his first shift by the crowd, and played his first full NHL game in nearly 11 months.

He played 32 games before he was again injured, this time by a teammate's slap shot, which broke his left hand.

Williams won the Conn Smythe Trophy as most valuable player of the playoffs in 2014 with the Kings.