Should Spezza be extended..or traded?

[Jasmine]

Ottawa Senators general manager Bryan Murray says he hasn't offered captain Jason Spezza a new contract and he's not prepared to do so at the moment.
The 30-year-old Spezza has a no-trade clause and one year left on his current deal.


http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/jas ... -1.2611256

[Dean Ambrose]

Re: Should Spezza be extended..or traded?

Send him to Anaheim.

[Alfie11]

Re: Should Spezza be extended..or traded?

He should be extended, in my opinion.

I think you need a #1 centre who's dangerous on every shift to win a Cup...unless you're the Boston Bruins who are extremely hard to replicate. I like Turris and Zibanejad, but I don't see the offensive potential in any of them to be ~PPG centres that are dangerous on every shift. Spezza finished the season with 66 points in 75 games with crap for line mates for 75% of the season. I can't see many players putting up good numbers with a terrible Michalek and Cory Conacher or Mike Hoffman as your wingers.

It would be interesting to see the return. But we have a bunch of prospects and fringe NHLers...we need less question marks and more proven talent (such as Bobby Ryan). I think the team will take a big hit offensively with Spezza gone. It's extremely hard to get a #1 centre...Montreal/Toronto have been searching for years.

[Josh]

Re: Should Spezza be extended..or traded?

I'd trade him. Try to get a top-six winger and a top-four defenseman. Zibanejad is too good for the third line. It won't happen though; Spezza eats up ~ $7M in cap hit while only making ~ $4M in actual salary. And if I got the return I wanted, it would likely cost more than $4M in salary, so BM is handcuffed because he could likely only trade him for a loss.

[matchesmalone]

Re: Should Spezza be extended..or traded?

All depends what we can get for him. If we can get a package including Mikkel Boedker, Chris Stewart, Troy Brouwer or especially Patric Hornqvist, plus a first and a good prospect, I would do it. I disagree with Alfie in that I do think Zibanejad has the potential to be a top line center, or at least that he and Turris could share duties effectively. I agree with Josh that Spez' likely won't get traded this summer due to his salary, but for different reasons. With our real budget being the team budget and not the cap. Spez' 7 million cap hit doesn't matter. What matters for Melnyk is the 4 million dollar salary this year, quite a discount for Spez, so we'll likely keep him at least to start the season. From there we'll see how things go, and if it's going downhill again, I'd trade him early in the season, rather than waiting for trade deadline.

[Josh]

Re: Should Spezza be extended..or traded?

All depends what we can get for him. If we can get a package including Mikkel Boedker, Chris Stewart, Troy Brouwer or especially Patric Hornqvist, plus a first and a good prospect, I would do it. I disagree with Alfie in that I do think Zibanejad has the potential to be a top line center, or at least that he and Turris could share duties effectively. I agree with Josh that Spez' likely won't get traded this summer due to his salary, but for different reasons. With our real budget being the team budget and not the cap. Spez' 7 million cap hit doesn't matter. What matters for Melnyk is the 4 million dollar salary this year, quite a discount for Spez, so we'll likely keep him at least to start the season. From there we'll see how things go, and if it's going downhill again, I'd trade him early in the season, rather than waiting for trade deadline.

Right, what I meant though is that the cap DOES matter, only in that it allows the Sens to reach the cap floor quicker while spending less. It's like a $3M discount.

[Jasmine]

Re: Should Spezza be extended..or traded?

Well, it looks like we are heading for a trade in this one..according to some articles I've seen around..including this one:

http://www.thehockeynews.com/blog/tradi ... -nhl-life/

[Josh]

Re: Should Spezza be extended..or traded?

Yeah, it definitely does seem inevitable now. With Turris - Zibanejad, I'm not too worried. Not to mention Da Costa, if we retain him, and Lazar too. I just hope we get a good return on #19.

[Dean Ambrose]

Re: Should Spezza be extended..or traded?

He's asked for a trade.

[Jasmine]

Re: Should Spezza be extended..or traded?

Yup, confirmed by Murray http://www.thescore.com/news/518144

[Josh]

Re: Should Spezza be extended..or traded?

Why the heck would Murray even bother confirming it? That just handcuffs him... Damn it all, now our return is going to be terrible :(

[Alfie11]

Re: Should Spezza be extended..or traded?

Murray confirmed it today, but I think it was well known to everyone that he had asked for a trade. And even if he didn't, I think the Sens would be parting ways with Spezza.

[Alfie11]

Re: Should Spezza be extended..or traded?

What do you guys think Spezza's 10 team list of teams he will not go to is?

Edmonton
Montreal
Toronto
Buffalo
New York Islanders
Phoenix
New Jersey
Columbus

Need two more.

[Jasmine]

Re: Should Spezza be extended..or traded?

Id say Carolina and Florida (Panthers)

[Matt the Aussie]

Re: Should Spezza be extended..or traded?

I dunno, I don't think Calgary is a particularly great place to end up either.