Dallas Stars Should Play Jason Spezza With Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn

After his early-season struggles, fans and analysts wonder: what’s up with Dallas Stars center Jason Spezza and how can we fix him?

Dallas Stars center Jason Spezza is 34 years old and playing in his 15th National Hockey League season, while also nursing a lingering back injury stemming from two back surgeries over his NHL tenure. That is no excuse for his early-season struggles, but it feels fair to get that out of the way.

It’s easy to tell that Spezza is on perhaps his last leg as an NHLer, but it’s impossible to predict how fast that time came around. You can’t write off a guy as skilled with the puck – and with as undeniably great of a release – off this quick, but once you lose your wheels, there’s really no getting them back.

Spezza is ten games into the 2017-18 season and has just four assists in addition to zero goals. His time on ice averages have dwindled to 12:58 a game, his lowest since his 33-game rookie season with Ottawa as a 19-year-old. Spezza is getting his chances, surely, with a 56.8 Corsi For %, but has not yet hit the back of the net.

Father time is the only unbeaten figure in hockey. Spezza is getting old, and fast. The Mississauga native looks slow, ineffective, and genuinely out of shape through ten games. He still provides a variety of “intangibles” for old-school hockey head coach Ken Hitchcock, but there doesn’t seem to be a way to hide or further shelter Spezza.

More from Blackout Dallas

• Dallas Stars Traverse City Tournament: Who had great performances?
• Grushnikov and Stankoven lead Dallas Stars to 6-3 win over Columbus
• Dallas Stars prospects look to wrap up tournament with a win
• Burn the tapes: Dallas Stars prospects lose 5-1 to Toronto Maple Leafs
• Dallas Stars look to continue success today against the Maple Leafs

It’s clear that in stripping Spezza of time on the Dallas Stars’ first power play unit, in favor of sophomore sensation Devin Shore, Hitchcock and company are doing more than hiding Spezza’s inefficiencies at 5-on-5. As a purely offensive center since his NHL upbringing (Spezza does not often play penalty kill, if ever), the one aspect of the game at which he excels, is gone.

Spezza is surely disheartened and disenfranchised as a hockey player at this point. The only way for the Dallas Stars coaching staff to bring back what’s left of the former second-overall NHL Draft pick is giving him who he needs, when he needs it, and how often it can potentially succeed.

Jason Spezza needs to play with Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn on the Dallas Stars top line.

It seems insane to potentially ruin your top line’s early-season mojo, right? Well, that’s because it is. To risk the Seguin-Benn combo at the alter of an underwhelming Spezza isn’t something that can work in other systems. But for Ken Hitchcock, this is easy money.

Hitchcock is a defensive center’s God, and Hitchism (just made it up a second ago) dates back to Mike Modano and Joe Nieuwendyk with the three-zone excellence they had on the dominant Stars teams of the 90s and early 2000s. Hitchism has transformed a normally risky player like Tyler Seguin, whose reputation is as more of a pure offense centerman, to one of the more dynamic two-way players in hockey early on this season.

Dallas Stars

Seguin is out defending late leads, killing penalties, and facing off against the opposition’s best lines. With Benn having already been a stellar defensive player, the combo – in addition to Alexander Radulov – has torched the competition in the early going this season.

The problem with Spezza on a line with Seguin and Benn in the first three years of their concurrence as Stars forwards was Lindy Ruff’s fast paced, risk vs reward system allowing the three to get too far ahead of themselves and not play defensively sound hockey. With a transformed Seguin and a physically fit Benn at the helm, that doesn’t look to be an issue.

Spezza’s job wouldn’t be too hard. The Stars have recently used volume shooter Brett Ritchie with the top duo and found success late in the game against Colorado on Tuesday. Spezza could fill in the same role and do so effectively, with his quick release and nasty wrist shot.

It would be mostly Benn and Seguin carrying the puck into the offensive zone, and the two All-Stars cleaning up defensively. If Spezza doesn’t have his wheels anymore, don’t worry, he won’t have many responsibilities aside from ripping the puck on net and keeping himself down on the puck in the corners. NHL players often see their skating ability deteriorate first, but their cycle play and their shot stay around for a bit.

Spezza could focus on hitting the net and get his confidence back up while Seguin and Benn have a reliable shooter and playmaker to their right. On paper, it doesn’t look like a horrible idea – at least I like it.

The issue is the trickle-down effect it has on the remainder of the Dallas Stars’ lines, but trust me, that’s no issue. The Stars have an abundance of centers (in fact, too many), and could quickly fill in Spezza’s center spot with another top-six caliber play. Hypothetically, Dallas can have a forward lineup of:

Jamie Benn – Tyler Seguin – Jason Spezza
Mattias Janmark – Martin Hanzal – Alexander Radulov
Antoine Roussel – Radek Faksa – Tyler Pitlick
Remi Elie – Devin Shore – Brett Ritchie
Gemel Smith

Look at that masterpiece. It’s four lines that can roll through the opposition with relative ease and it’s the perfect situation for a struggling player in Jason Spezza. Ken Hitchcock is often times way too unpredictable, and there’s really no way to tell how effective a set up like this would be, but again, it’s fundamentally terrific on paper.

Next: Three Dallas Stars That Need A Major Turnaround

As the season rolls along, it’ll be hard to perceive a lineup in which every individual player is happy and performing to the best of their abilities. Jason Spezza’s offensive proficiency, nevertheless, is neccesary to the Dallas Stars’ desired level of success. Slapping Spezza on Seguin and Benn’s wing doesn’t sound like a bad idea.