Justin Williams: Capitals have ‘all the ingredients of a championship team’

Justin Williams’ list was intuitive, yet simple.

When the former Los Angeles Kings right wing was looking for a new home last week at the start of the free-agent signing period, he was hoping to find a good fit. To Williams, that meant not just his role, but the support from the coaching staff, the quality of the training facilities, the comfort of the neighborhoods and school systems.

“And certainly, at the top of that list, does this team have a chance to win?” said Williams, wearing a red Washington Capitals sweater with his name and No. 14 stitched on the back. “All the boxes were checked here.”

The three-time Stanley Cup winner signed a two-year, $6.5 million contract with the Capitals last week, then arrived in Washington earlier this week to begin the acclimation process.

Williams, 33, has met with members of the coaching staff, all of whom have been on site for the team’s five-day development camp, joking that he’s “shaking everybody’s hands and pretending I know their names.”

Other preparations will have to wait. Williams said he hasn’t pondered any potential line combinations, noting only that the centers, which he called dynamic and skillful, “let you keep the puck, and I’m looking forward to that.”

That should be a benefit for Williams, who will likely spend much of the season on one of the Capitals’ top two lines. A one-time 30-goal scorer — albeit not since 2006-07, when he played for the Carolina Hurricanes — Williams bounced between the Kings’ second and third lines last year, finishing with 18 goals and 23 assists over 81 games.

That goal total was his lowest in a full, non-strike-shortened season since 2003-04, when he had 11 goals, with 36 assists, in a year in which he was traded to the Hurricanes from the Philadelphia Flyers near the deadline.

“I mean, as you get older, you need to train harder, and you know, that’s what I have to do every year,” Williams said. “Unfortunately — or fortunately for me, whatever way you want to look at it — I had a long summer and I had a lot of time to train. I’m healthy, and when you’re older, you’ve got to keep your speed and quickness, and that’s what I’m trying to do.”

Aside from representing Canada alongside Jason Chimera at the IIHF World Championships in 2007, and a selection to the All-Star Game in 2007, when he played with Alex Ovechkin, Williams said he doesn’t particularly know any of his new teammates.

Ovechkin was among the first players to reach out to Williams after he signed last week, and Williams acknowledged that it could be enjoyable to play with him.

“People have asked me, ’Who’s hard to play against?’” Williams said. “Usually, you think of a defenseman or someone like that, but Ovi. Ovi’s hard to play against. Skillful and hard, and I know he played against us in L.A. and he hit [defenseman Drew] Doughty about seven or eight times, and Doughty’s like, ’Holy smokes, enough.’ When he wants to be, you know, he’s pretty impressive and tough to play against.”

When coach Barry Trotz initially called Williams with a recruiting pitch on July 1, his message was that Williams could be the kind of player that could help the Capitals get closer to their goal of winning the Stanley Cup.

Williams also could see, from his standpoint, that there were parallels between how the Kings were assembled — and how they were able to twice win a championship — and how the Capitals are coming together.

“Obviously, you need to earn respect of the league, and certainly L.A. has done that and Washington is certainly doing that with the way they’ve played the last few years,” Williams said. “Not making the playoffs, you’re able to watch a little bit of hockey, and I watched a lot of [Washington] play last year, and they were tough to play against. Good goalie. Dynamic players. Good defense. All the ingredients of a championship team.”