2019 Free Agents the Anaheim Ducks Should Avoid: Jason Spezza
Free Agency in the NHL Opens July 1st, the Anaheim Ducks have a bit of cap room and some holes on their roster. Some free agents will potentially be appetizing to one Bob Murray, but they shouldn’t be for a multitude of reasons.
Every NHL Off-Season has a lot of different types of free-agents on July 1st, there’s the big fish that every fan dreams about coming to their team, the sleeper players who are pleasant surprises, the players fans get excited about only to be let down over the course of the contract, and then there are the players we’re going to discuss over the next few articles… The players that have plenty of red flags from the get-go, that should be avoided at all cost, yet for some reason, GM’s feel the need to give them a chance. So, Bob Murray, I beg you not to sign any of these 3 players to be the next member of the Anaheim Ducks.
Jason Spezza- Center- Current Team: Dallas Stars
I’m going to start out with the least egregious pick. Jason Spezza is a center in the NHL where he has spent the last 5 seasons with the Dallas Stars. He is certainly a veteran of the game, he will be entering his 18th NHL season (17+1 AHL season during the lockout) when the puck drops in October. Spezza has had a massively successful career.
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Entering the 2017-18 season Jason Spezza had 12 years out of 14 in which he put up a minimum of 50 points (and that’s not accounting for his 4 years putting up between 80-90+ points) and the only two seasons he didn’t put up over 50 points were the lockout year in 2004-05 (Where he put up an astounding 117 points in the AHL) and the other lockout-shortened season during his career in 2012-13 (where he only played in 5 games, putting up 5 points).
So, what’s the problem? The 2017-18 season Spezza’s production kind of fell off a cliff. Going from 50 points in 2016-17, to 26 points in 2017-18 (The fewest non-lockout point total he put up since his rookie season in 2002-03 when he put up 21 points… Which he did in 33 games as opposed to the 78 games he played in 2017-18. Spezza followed that up with another disappointing season in 2018-19 which saw him put up 27 points in 76 games.
The fact of the matter is, the game has passed Spezza by, never exactly the best skater on the ice, the quick transition to a league based around speed has left Spezza in the dust. Spezza is still a very smart hockey player, and his hands are soft as ever, but keeping up with the game has become increasingly difficult for him, and for a team like the Anaheim Ducks, who are re-tooling amd looking to get faster, Spezza is the opposite of what they should be looking for.
The reason he’s the least egregious choice is that he still has a role in the NHL, his value on the ice may have decreased, he’s not a top 6 forward the way he once was, but his leadership is still valuable and in the right deployment he could be useful on a 4th line role. The Anaheim Ducks have plenty of those players, however, and we’ve already tried out 1/3 of the 2006-07 Senators top forward line, and that did not yield results. Let’s not go for round 2.
Do you think the Ducks should give Spezza a chance or do you agree with me if we want a veteran center who can’t keep up anymore we always have Ryan Kesler? Let me know what you think!
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