Jack Williams sat in front of a room of reporters with a grin on his face. It was a championship grin – after all, he’d just hoisted a trophy.
A two-time Beanpot winner, Williams had a new prize to add his collection on Saturday.
“First one,” Williams said. “It’s good to get that win.”
This one, though, didn’t come at TD Garden, a place Williams has seen plenty of success. It came in the OhioHealth Ice Haus in Columbus, as Williams’ three goals in the Stinger Cup lifted Team Cross to a dominant 6-0 win over Team Donskov to wrap up the Blue Jackets’ 2025 development camp presented by Bread Financial.
Williams went undrafted and was signed by Columbus as a free agent in March after three years of college hockey at Northeastern. Last week was the center’s first development camp as a Blue Jacket.
He had a pretty unique perspective, though – he’s practiced at the Ice Haus before, gotten dinner with Boone Jenner and Jack Johnson, and was on the ice when the cannon sounded at Nationwide Arena.
Within a few days of signing with Columbus, Williams was leaving Northeastern and joining the Blue Jackets for the NHL stretch run. Williams had a front row seat to the Blue Jackets’ playoff push, and he was a sponge, absorbing every last morsel of what it means to be a professional.
“It was awesome just seeing the way that the guys operated,” Williams said. “They showed me the ropes. They kind of helped me out whenever there were questions, and it was great to get to know the staff and everybody here. It was an awesome experience.”
At the end of it all, Williams’ time with the team was capped off with his first NHL game, as he skated more than 11 minutes in the season finale April 17 in a 6-1 win over the New York Islanders at Nationwide Arena.
“It was surreal,” said Williams, who was the only player at development camp with NHL experience. “Playing your first NHL game is obviously something you dream of. And luckily enough, I found out that morning that my parents were able to make it out in time. It was just a super special night.”
Then, in a blink of an eye, it was done. One moment, Williams was making his NHL debut. The next, it was the offseason.
After getting a taste of the NHL, the former Northeastern captain is tackling his summer training with a chip on his shoulder and a slight edge in experience.
“I’m definitely hungry for more,” Williams said. “To get a feel for what the speed was like, what the strength was like, and what a game feels like at that level was really special. And I think it’s a little bit of an upper hand. I know what I need to work on and what needs to be done in the offseason.”
New England Roots
Williams grew up in Biddeford, Maine, a small city just south of Portland near the coast. When he debuted for the Blue Jackets, he became just the eight player from his home state ever to skate in the NHL.
Before captaining Northeastern or signing with Columbus, Williams attended the Maine prep school Berwick Academy for one year and spent the next two at South Kent School in Kent, Connecticut. He was pulled out of New England for the 2019-20 season, joining the Muskegon Lumberjacks in the USHL, where he’d stay for three full seasons.
When the call came ringing to head back east, Williams jumped on it.
“Northeastern was a special place for me,” Williams said. “I committed there when I was pretty young, and there is just so much history and culture at that school. And I’m so proud that I was able to go there, and very honored to be able to wear the ‘C’ there.”
In his three seasons at Northeastern, Williams’ Huskies just missed out on NCAA tournament berths. They failed to advance further than the Hockey East quarterfinals in his first two seasons, but went on a miraculous run down the stretch this past season that led them to Hockey East championship weekend.
The Huskies might not have been able to get over the hump in the Hockey East playoffs or the NCAA tournament. But Williams knows a thing – or two – about winning. Northeastern won five Beanpot tournaments in six seasons, and Williams was part of two of those championship squads in the famed Boston-only in-season tournament.
“So special,” Williams said of those two championships. “It’s four teams where anybody can win it every year. It’s such a fun night (and) fun tournament.”
This season, Northeastern fell short of a third consecutive Beanpot title. The Huskies experienced a dip in performance as the team dealt with the consequences of having a young group – Williams was a junior captain, and four of the five assistant captains were also juniors.
Still, the Huskies upset top-seeded Boston College in the Hockey East quarterfinals before experiencing a heartbreaking double-overtime loss to Maine, the eventual league champion, in the semifinal at TD Garden in Boston.
A Natural Leader
A freshman at Northeastern – and a 2022 Blue Jackets draft pick – had a front-row seat to witness what Williams meant to the Huskies.
“I think everyone in Columbus should be excited about a player like that,” said James Fisher, who got to share the ice with Williams once again at development camp last week. “He led our team this year through thick and thin. We had some low points, we had some highs, and he was always a great teammate. He was great to me as a first-year guy at Northeastern, and he showed me the ropes.”
Fisher had glowing things to say about his captain, who led Northeastern with 41 points in his junior campaign. Williams’ offensive flair was on full display at the Stinger Cup, where he chipped in on the score sheet in all kinds of ways – most notably, driving to the net.
Williams measures in at 5-11, meaning he’s not going to be the tallest guy on the ice. But his relentless pressure on the forecheck and ability to drive to the dirty areas separates his game from the rest of the pack.
“You watch him on the ice, he’s going to be the hardest worker out there,” Fisher said. “In practice, to go against him one-on-one, he’s going to do everything he can to outwork you.”
“I like to play fast. I like to drive the pace forechecking, I think it’s a big part of my game,” Williams said. “For me, just finding pucks loose around the net and the crease is a big objective of mine.”
That scrappiness and drive is what enticed Columbus to sign the undrafted free agent at the end of his college season. Of those eight players from Maine to skate in the NHL, Williams was just the third to debut after going undrafted.
“I think it just gives me a lot of confidence knowing that I can play at that level,” Williams said. “I’ve just been playing with confidence and that hunger in the offseason so far.”
After getting his shot in the NHL, Williams was ready to put in the work to get back there. It was a no-brainer for him to return to the place he credits for making him the player he is today – for the first half of the summer, Williams worked with strength and conditioning coach Dan Boothby in the weight room at Northeastern.
Northeastern is not like Boston College or Boston University, both blue bloods in college hockey with long and rich histories, or even Harvard, a longstanding powerhouse in the ECAC.
“It’s a school where you kind of earn everything that you get,” Williams said. “I think I’m a really good example of that. You can start on the fourth line, but by the time you’re a sophomore, junior, senior, you work your way up.”
Williams is a tangible example of just that. His excitement and eagerness to get back to the NHL is palpable, practically radiating off of him as he fielded questions after his hat trick in the Stinger Cup.
“I saw how hard he worked throughout the year,” Fisher said. “Watching him play that game at the end of the year was special. It put a smile on my face. I was so happy for him.”
Williams will move to Montreal to train with a friend of his before his first NHL training camp. It’s been a year of “firsts” for the forward, which for some might be daunting.
But if there’s anyone that can handle a little pressure or adversity, it’s Williams.
“He worked toward that goal every single day this year,” Fisher said. “It’s just a special thing to see a guy like that (get rewarded) – an undrafted guy who wasn’t really given anything, who had to work for everything. It goes to show him as a person and as a player and his work ethic. It’s special.”
As Williams left Columbus to continue his offseason work, he has a goal in mind. While it’s possible or maybe even likely he begins the season in the AHL as he gets his feet under him at the pro level, like every player, his goal is to make the Blue Jackets have to make a tough decision once training camp begins.
“Honestly, my mentality is just coming into training camp, working as hard as I can and trying to win a spot,” Williams said. “But just showing everybody – all the staff and all the players – what I can do.”
