One day there is going to be intense debate about the Toronto Maple Leafs forward Jason Spezza and the Hall of Fame.
The argument won’t be if he belongs – he does – but if he wears his Senators sweater or his Toronto Maple Leafs sweater when he does.
Spezza is a legend in Ottawa, he played his most of his entire career there and of course he’ll go in as a Senator……except for the fact that all his Stanley Cup rings will be in blue and white.
So we’ll debate, because that is what we do.
But in the meantime, let us celebrate the legend and future hall of famer by recognizing his incredible season.
Toronto Maple Leafs Find Gold
The Leafs signed Jason Spezza to as little fan fare as can possibly greet the Leafs doing anything. Lets just say most people who like the Leafs considered Spezza a rival, and his career was on the downswing.
In the last couple of years – much to the chagrin of their ex-coach – the Toronto Maple Leafs have tried using skilled players instead of checkers and grinders on their fourth line.
It’s a strategy that continues to pay dividends, but this year they took it a step further and asked:
What if we took a Hall of Famer who’d lost a step and put him up against 4th liners, the majority of which are grinders?
They could have done this previously with Patrick Marleau, but Babcock inexplicably insisted on using him like a first liner.
Enter Jason Spezza.
playing mostly fourth line minutes with Kapanen, Guathier and Engvall, Spezza was a revelation.
Spezza posted a 52% expected goals rating,(naturalstattrick.com) and a WAR rating of 1.8 Wins Above a Replacement player (@Jfresh).
In a league where 4 or 5 WAR gets you a Hart/Norris trophy, 2 wins is elite production. But 2 wins from the fourth line is just a massive edge because most teams fourth lines do nothing or cost their team value.
Spezza had 9 goals and 25 points, which is incredible in the context of his minutes. (He averaged less than nine and a half minutes of 5v5 ice time per game).
His 1.98 points per 60 minutes is behind only Mikheyev, Matthews, Marner and Nylander. It is essentially first line production – from the fourth line.
Jason Spezza provides a first line scoring rate, with near elite defensive abilities and elite power-play capabilities. According to @jfresh he gave the Leafs $5 million worth of value for roughly the league minimum.
Re-signing Spezza is a 100% necessity.