The 39-year-old won the Stanley Cup three times as a player during a 19-season NHL career, including with the Hurricanes in 2006. He also won the Cup with the Los Angeles Kings in 2012 and 2014, the year he won the Conn Smythe Trophy awarded to the most valuable player during the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The forward retired as a player Oct. 8, 2020, after playing his final three NHL seasons with Carolina; he was Hurricanes captain in 2018-19.
"My end goal is really to learn as much as I can," Williams said. "That's basically what I'm doing now. Once you make that transition, and this part of the hockey world interests me, which it does, then you've just got to start dipping your toe in and start learning a little bit.
"What does Don do every day? What do the assistant general managers do every day? How do we evaluate players? How do we rate players? That whole day-to-day thing which I know nothing about because I just went to the rink, did my stuff and went home. There's a lot of work that these guys put in and I'm just slowly going to try and learn it as best I can. Really, the endgame is doing my part to try and bring a championship back here. I was able to help out back in 2006, but I know that this team is very capable and very close to getting back to doing that."
Waddell said besides "just being around," the Hurricanes envision Williams helping in a variety of areas.
"Being a player that's just recently out of the game, he's got a lot of knowledge and a lot of contacts within the game," Waddell said. "Knowing the players as he does and respected by players around the League, having that kind of asset with your hockey club I think is something that we certainly can use.
"His experience of being in all the playoffs as he has, the runs he's had during his great career, and playing with a lot of different players, knowing every player out there. Justin Williams picks up the phone and calls a player, he's going to get called back for sure. There's just a lot of things that he can do for us."
Williams scored 797 points (320 goals, 477 assists) in 1,264 NHL games with the Philadelphia Flyers, Hurricanes, Kings and Washington Capitals, and 102 points (41 goals, 61 assists) in 162 playoff games. He scored 316 points (128 goals, 188 assists) in 449 games with Carolina and is sixth in Hurricanes history in goals, seventh in assists and eighth in points.
Williams is one of nine NHL players to score 100 goals and win the Stanley Cup with two teams. He scored 15 points (seven goals, eight assists) in nine Game 7s, the most by any player in NHL history, and his teams were 8-1 in those games, earning him the nickname "Mr. Game 7."
The Hurricanes (6-2-0) are tied for third place in the Discover Central Division.
NHL.com deputy managing editor Adam Kimelman contributed to this report
