The problem with knowing that you were one goal away from winning the 2014 Eastern Conference finals matchup against the back-to-back defending NLL champion Rochester Knighthawks wasn’t an easy pill to swallow for the Buffalo Bandits. With the sting of the postseason loss still fresh in their minds, the Buffalo Bandits organization headed into the offseason with the mindset that while the defensive and goaltending play had excelled by leaps and bounds, the offensive side of the ball needed some major improvements.
The offensive side of the ball has been an issue with the Buffalo Bandits for the past six years in terms of team scoring output. When the NLL shifted to a 16 game season in 2002, the Bandits as a team have been members of the 200 goals and over club seven out of thirteen times. Unfortunately for the Bandits, the last time they reached that mark was the 2009 season when they racked up 223 goals.
When the time came for the Buffalo Bandits to start their new transition into upgrading their offense, Bandits GM Steve Dietrich and head coach Troy Cordingley decided that going with a younger offensive lefties would be the way to go for now and used the 2014 NLL entry draft as the means to get this new plan in motion. During the draft, the Bandits organization decided to draft nothing but offensive lefty scorers like Brandon Goodwin, Matthew Bennett, Tyler Ferreira, Jordan Dance and Mike Melnychenko to help replenish their needs. The aftermath of the 2014 draft unfortunately put the squeeze on some of the veteran lefties and it was looking more and more like “NLL Iron Man” Shawn Williams was going to be the odd man out this time around and possibly unable to make the starting roster.
When the news finally came less than two weeks ago from the NLL league office that Williams had moved on from the Bandits and joined up with Eastern Conference rival Toronto Rock, the local media and Bandits fans questions about Williams’ status with the team were finally answered. GM Dietrich used his time with the press before the opening of training camp to help shed more light on Williams’ departure.
“It was really tough with Shawn,” Dietrich explained. “I just thought going forward it was real tough when we’re going to dress maximum four lefts to have two guys in their year 40. I still think Shawn can contribute but it’s an area that we needed to get younger. With Brandon Goodwin and some of the other kids that we brought in and moving Chad (Culp) up to full time offense, I just didn’t think there was a spot for Shawn. We had hoped he would come to camp and battle for a spot and maybe prove one of us wrong and take a job. He decided to go to Toronto and we wish him all the best. I got nothing but great things to say about Shawn Williams.”
When the Bandits acquired the offensive services of Shawn Williams from the Edmonton Rush/Minnesota Swarm in the summer of 2012, he had just finished leading the Rush in points with 68 (16G, 52A) and ranked sixth in the league in assists during the 2012 NLL season.
When GM Dietrich decided on trading for Williams during that offseason, there were two main reasons why and these reasons still hold true to this very day regardless of what team Williams ever played for. The first reason why was “Shawn will help add some scoring to our roster”.
Williams’ offensive success with the Rush the previous season easily transferred over to the struggling Bandits as he lead the team in scoring with 65 points (19G, 46A) during the 2013 NLL season (which saw Tavares miss a quarter of the games due to injury) and ranked fifth on the team in scoring for the 2014 season with 49 points (13G, 36A).
Looking at the overall picture of Williams’ career, the offensive lefty has recorded 444 goals and added 708 assists for 1152 career points over 257 NLL games. His record of playing in 230 consecutive games will definitely be one of the hardest ones to break. These career totals rank Williams second all-time in games played, fifth all-time in goals, fourth all-time in assists and sixth all-time in points. On top of these crowning offensive achievements, Williams has also won two Champion’s Cup titles. His first championship arrived during the 1999 season as a member of the Toronto Rock and his second came in 2007 as a member of the Rochester Knighthawks.
The second reason why Williams was selected by Dietrich back in 2012 was that “he is a great teammate on and off the floor”. Athletes as a whole are always known for the tangibles that they bring (scoring power/defensive muscle for example) but also for the intangibles that they bring as well to any team (leadership/heart/spirit).
When head coach Troy Cordingley was asked by the media before the opening of training camp what he will miss the most from the departure of Shawn Williams, he responded with “What Shawn was real good at, is he was real good in the dressing room. He was a guy who was a player just like JT (Tavares) who has played this league, who has won in this league and who has done everything in this league. He’s a real good guy and had a tough year last year, some tough things going on with his son and I have nothing but unbelievable things to say about that man. That’s gonna be tough, that’s character that you can’t replace.”
