Vegas Golden Knights: Making a case for Jason Spezza

Pros to signing Jason Spezza

At 35-years of age Spezza is in the twilight of his career but he still has much to offer and would bring a wealth of experience to the Golden Knights locker room, which cannot be understated when you consider that Cody Eakin, Deryk Engelland and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare could all be heading for pastures new this offseason.

Eakin and Bellemare currently occupy the third and fourth-line center spots for the franchise but if both players leave via trade and unrestricted free agency respectively, then you would have two big holes to fill.

Erik Haula, who is currently working his way back from a season-ending lower-body injury, would make perfect sense to plug the gap as the team’s third-line center, paving the way for Spezza to come in and operate as the fourth-line pivot between William Carrier and Ryan Reaves.

Talk about a shutdown line that would boast an abundance of power, grit, tenacity and snarl with Spezza also able to bring a lot more to the table rather than just his hulking 6’3″, 215 lb frame.

Firstly, the right-shot boasts exceptional skills in the faceoff circle with a career win percentage of 53.1, while he won a hugely impressive 58.24 of his draws in 2018-19. That resume would make Spezza a perfect candidate to have roles on both the power play and penalty kill, and you’d also have no qualms about matching him up against other team’s top lines when it comes to his faceoff expertise.

His 30 blocked shots, 16 hits and 26 takeaways this year underlines the solid job that Spezza can carry out in the defensive zone, although his 53 giveaways in 2018-19 would give any potential suitors cause for concern.

Shifting the focus on to Spezza’s offensive play however, and the Golden Knights would be gaining a player still capable of putting up respectable numbers, particularly for someone who would probably suit a fourth-line grinder role best at this stage of his career.

Spezza put up eight goals and 19 assists for 27 points for the Stars in 18-19, including 12 points on the power play. He also contributed five points (three goals, two assists) in 11 playoff outings for Dallas.

That is the kind of secondary scoring any Stanley Cup contender would crave and you can bank on Spezza having at least one more productive season in the tank.

Consider this also; if Bellemare does indeed leave Sin City this summer as an unrestricted free agent then recruiting Spezza would not only fill that hole at fourth-line center, but he could also act as the perfect mentor for Cody Glass.

Glass, who is currently doing his thing for the Chicago Wolves in the AHL Western Conference Finals, is Vegas’ No.1 prospect on the depth start and the young stud is standing on the precipice of earning an NHL call-up.

So what better way for Glass to continue his development than by being taking under the wing of Spezza and learning from a true professional in the NHL? It would be an invaluable learning curve for the young talent and could accelerate his path towards being truly NHL ready.

It is a different sport entirely so you could say this is like comparing apples to oranges, but the core principal remains the same. Patrick Mahomes, star quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs in the NFL, spent a year sitting behind and learning from Alex Smith before he was given his chance to shine in the big leagues and look at how that has panned out for him. The same kind of situation could work wonders for Glass in the NHL.