Jason Spezza could be nearing the end of his playing days with the Ottawa Senators.
Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos reported Sunday that the team is shopping their captain and Hockey Night in Canada’s Elliotte Friedman told Sportsnet 960 The Fan Monday that several teams are interested in the centre.
“St. Louis is a team looking for offence and I think Nashville is a team looking for offence,” Friedman said. “Spezza would waive his no-trade I think to go to a place like Nashville. They’re going to have a new coach that’s going to preach offence and also Mike Fisher’s there so Spezza will have somebody who he really knows on that team.”
Spezza and Fisher were teammates in Ottawa from 2002 until 2011 before Fisher was traded to the Predators.
Hockey Night in Canada analyst Elliotte Friedman on Sportsnet 960 The Fan
Friedman also suggested the Calgary Flames might show interest and added the Ducks have had Spezza on their radar for a while.
“The team that I heard was really in on him during the regular season was Anaheim,” Friedman said.
Spezza has one year remaining on his contract that will pay him $4 million — his cap hit is $7 million, however — before he becomes an unrestricted free agent next summer.
“If Ottawa comes out today and [GM] Bryan Murray says, ‘Jason Spezza’s on the market,’ there’s going to be teams throwing themselves at him. A guy that’s a [No. 1 or No. 2] centre, they’re hard to find; a guy that put up [84] points two years ago, those guys are hard to find.”
In 75 games last season, Spezza had 23 goals, 66 points, 46 penalty minutes and a minus-26 rating. He was selected second overall by the Sens in the 2001 NHL Draft.
