It seemed inevitable that Jason Spezza’s hockey trip would not end the day he decided to retire from the NHL.
This was a guy his teammates once christened “Bob McKenzie” because of his obsession with everything that fell into the league: every last goal, every transaction (big or small), every last player and prospect. No one familiar with Spezza will be surprised to see him make the leap, one that potentially ends up in the Hall of Fame, with GM Kyle Dubas’ special assistant at the Maple Leafs reception.
“It will be GM as soon as he hangs up his skates,” once said childhood friend, former teammate and longtime NHL opponent Trevor Daley.
“I always knew everything about the league,” said former Ottawa Senator teammate Erik Karlsson in an interview last year, “what was happening in Europe, all these random things that I myself, I really didn’t feel like I needed to sit back and watch. “
Nick Foligno, who played with Spezza in Toronto and Ottawa, added: “If you had a question, you went to Spezz about anything that was going on in the league. I don’t know if he has scouts or so many friends on other teams, but he seemed I had the answers. “
The Leafs announced Spezza’s retirement on Sunday after 19 NHL seasons. (John E. Sokolowski / USA Today)
Some guys like hockey. Spezza ate it. I slept it. He was breathing. He was all inside, the best hockey nerd even at the end of a 20-year career in the NHL.
“He’s a convict,” Foligno said. “I know he has daughters at home and I think he’s a super dad, but I’m sure the game will always be there for him and he’ll want to get involved somehow.”
“He just has too much knowledge to offer. It would be a waste for a guy like him not to want to get involved.”
And so it will be.
Spezza and Dubas started debating what Spezza’s career might be like after playing last summer. These talks resumed after the Leafs’ loss to the Lightning. The role of special assistant will have Spezza “watching, learning and grabbing everything she can” from her place at the reception next season.
After that, the two parties will re-evaluate and determine what was most appealing to Spezza.
“If it’s about listening, whether it ends up being player development, coaching, things about the salary cap,” Dubas said, “we want to give you the next 13 or 14 months to really figure it out and immerse yourself in every facet. (from the reception).) and then determine which is better. “
At this point, Spezza isn’t sure which direction he wants to go in the end.
It may be easy to forget now how great a Spezza star was. It was a No. 2 pick that once destroyed the league in the best line of hockey: the all-powerful No. 1 Ottawa Senators unit with Spezza alongside Daniel Alfredsson and Dany Heatley.
The famous Pizza Line propelled the Sens to the Stanley Cup final in 2007. Spezza called those days the “peak” of his playing career.
“It’s funny,” said former Senator Chris Kelly, “we were about to win (the Devils in the second round) and it’s coming to an end and Jersey, his season is about to end, and he says to Spezz, “Hey, Spezz, can you give me a stick after the game?” This guy’s season is about to end and what he has in mind is getting a stick signed by Jason Spezza after the game. “
Spezza played for the Senators from 2002 to 2014. (Andre Ringuette / NHLI via Getty Images)
Spezza was the master of the line. He was one of the best passers-by of his generation.
“I think any scorer will tell you he has his favorite,” Heatley said in an interview at one point. “They are all great players; I played with some amazing power plants. But he only knew where he was going to be. It was that (unspoken) chemistry, I don’t know how to describe it. What I liked to do, where I was going to be … (I knew it). Like, there were certain times when I might have a split second left, just a split second more, or jump into a hole a little faster and he knew what he was thinking that way.
“It simply came to our notice then. What I really liked about him for me was the pace of his passes. I mean, if he was 10 feet away, he’d put him in there with a T-shirt for me. But if it was a cross ice, I would make one because we had to hit the goalkeeper on the stick. “
Mike Fisher, another former teammate in Ottawa, added: “What happens to Spezz is that he has a good shot, an underrated shot, I thought. And I could use him to trick defenders and make plays. that I only had that vision, that ability to find guys: to know where the guys were without really having to look. Everyone, myself included, was jealous of the way the record went. “
Spezza finished his career five points short of 1,000, ranking 94th in NHL history. Adjusted for the time, Spezza moves to the 80s.
Only 79 players collected more than their 632 assists.
Reduce things to the time he played and Spezza had more points than all but 10 players: Alex Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby, Joe Thornton, Patrick Kane, Evgeni Malkin, Anze Kopitar, Eric Staal, Ryan Getzlaf, Nick Backstrom and Henrik Sedin.
Spezza took sixth place in the Hart Trophy (2012) vote. During his best years in Ottawa, he was definitely ranked among the best players in the game and should create a meaningful conversation at some point for a place in the Hall of Fame.
Finally, a Stanley Cup escaped him.
“There’s definitely a big gap in my heart and in my career without being able to win it,” Spezza said. “It’s the job of my life, hockey, and not being able to be a champion is difficult. But I think that will also help me want to keep playing. “
Spezza was willing to do everything he could to get that Cup as a player.
After five seasons in Dallas, he arrived in Toronto open to fill any role the Leafs asked him to pursue in that championship. Leafs head coach Mike Babcock at the time didn’t think Spezza would really do it; that the former All-Star ability would suddenly want to turn him into a fourth-line center.
“There’s a role for him here, but he needs to be able to do it,” Babcock said during training camp that year. “And so we’ll see about the exhibition if he likes it, if he wants to do it.”
Spezza was inexplicably scratched in what would have been her first game as Leaf, the opening night against her former Ottawa team.
Spezza took it easy. He did not complain. He did not pout. And in a short time he made it clear that he would not only play the role, but that he would do well.
During his first two seasons with the Leafs, Spezza accumulated 55 points in 112 games playing just 11 minutes per night. He needed almost nothing to chase a Cup with the team from his hometown. He was an ace in the circle of confrontation, playing the role of FOGO (confrontation, low) in the even penalty, and the quarterback of the second power play unit.
His fake jester was still fooling the boys somehow.
More than the contributions to the ice were the intangible things that took the leaves off the ice. That’s what led the Leafs to bring Spezza on board in the first place. Dubas wanted someone around to advise the talented young stars of the team, to point them in the right direction. I needed someone who had the credibility to do it.
“It is very difficult to put in the right context, or in words, the impact it has had on our facilities and our program every day, the level of attention and the passion it has, not only for the game of “Hockey, but really. Helping all the staff, all the players, anyone who really needed any help, in the low season, at all hours of the day,” Dubas said. “Every moment he was a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs as a player was pretty remarkable to watch.”
Spezza was the leader who carried no letters.
Dubas recalled that he bounced back in the dining room the day after the Leafs played poorly at Buffalo during their first season with the team. He seemed determined to lift all the players, especially the youngsters.
Spezza was a source of knowledge, willing and willing to provide guidance, answer questions, or tell stories to anyone who asked. Some of his teammates questioned him about his glory days, how difficult it was to reach the Cup final.
They called it “Vintage.” They called him “Spezz.” They adored him.
“We go to dinner and stuff all the time on the road,” William Nylander said at one point. “It simply came to our notice then. And you know what a good hockey player he is. It teaches us a lot of things, just things to keep in mind when we play. “
Auston Matthews loved to chat on the posts with Spezza, who was notoriously obsessive about every detail of his team, the sticks in particular.
Break the Auston Matthews. (Richard Lautens / Toronto Star via Getty Images)
But Spezza didn’t just advise the stars. It seemed like every player, even potential or marginal players who only drank a cup of coffee in the NHL, had a brilliant story about their interaction with Spezza.
Dubas saw it first hand during the informal summer skates, when Spezza warmed up the players competing in the ECHL. “He doesn’t treat anyone differently and he was willing to do whatever he could to help them,” Dubas said.
In Ottawa, Spezza watched as Alfredsson, Dominik Hasek, and Wade Redden looked after their younger peers. I wanted to do the same, pass on what I knew to the next generation.
That wasn’t a Toronto thing either. This is who Spezza was throughout his NHL career.
“He’s probably one of the best teammates I’ve ever played with …