It hasn’t been the best season for Dallas Stars forward Jason Spezza. But he is starting to figure out the role that Ken Hitchcock and the Stars want him to play in, and that should help as the season goes along.
Just a few minutes prior to puck drop on Monday afternoon in Boston, the news broke: Jason Spezza would serve as the healthy scratch for the Dallas Stars in the Monday afternoon game.
Though it came as an unexpected shock to some, it was a justified move by Ken Hitchcock. After all, it’s been a pretty disappointing year for no. 90.
Jason Spezza is on track to turn in one of the worst performances of his 15-season NHL career. That’s not an ideal thing to hear about the Stars’ second highest paid player. But it’s the truth. Spezza has been an outlier for the majority of the 2017-18 season, and that’s just plain weird.
When the Stars traded for Spezza in the summer of 2014, he was expected to be one of the final pieces to the Dallas Stars Stanley Cup puzzle. The Stars needed a second-line center that could carry the load and add a new dimension to the offense, and Spezza fit that mold. He had played 11 years with the Ottawa Senators, and had been the cornerstone of the franchise for many of those.
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After trading for him, Spezza made an immediate impact on the Stars in his first season. He posted 17 goals and 62 points in a 2014-15 season that saw Dallas struggle significantly. Spezza also earned himself a four-year extension worth $30 million during that season.
Then came 2015-16, and Spezza took another step in aiding Dallas. He put up one more point than he had in his first season with the Stars, but scored 33 goals in the process and contributed greatly to the Stars becoming the best offense in the league.
Last season, Spezza dealt with some injuries that hindered his ability to produce at a consistent rate. But even with the injuries, he still found a way to put up 15 goals and 50 points in 68 games. So overall, he did his job as best he could.
But this year, something is off. And when I say off, I mean WAY off.
Spezza is known around the NHL for being a prolific scorer and a fast and highly skilled forward. He is a power play specialist and is incredibly smart when in the offensive zone. Overall, he’s a talented and veteran forward that is incredibly useful to have in the lineup.
This season, however, he has yet to reach his typical heights. And at the age of 34, many are wondering if he still even has it in him to reach those levels.
The fact of the matter is that Spezza still has plenty of energy and fire left in him. He still has the tools and motivation to be a big factor in any NHL team’s lineup and could be incredibly useful come playoff time.
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His lacking production this season is rather confusing. On the one hand, he’s played in all but one game for the Stars, has the best possession numbers of his career, and is playing regularly alongside young and fast talent, which is when he usually thrives both as a leader and player.
But on the other hand, he has seven goals and 20 points in 47 games and is on pace for 34 point this year, which would mark the third lowest point total of his career. The other two? 21 points in his rookie year when he only played 33 games and five points through five games in the lockout season of 2013. That’s not good.
All in all, it seems as though Spezza’s new role is what’s getting in the way the most. When Ken Hitchcock took over as head coach of the Dallas Stars this summer after Lindy Ruff’s four years with the team, there was an immediate change of pace. New coaches and new schemes meant that the players would have to undergo some sort of adaptation process.
Most of the players adjusted rather quickly, figured out the new schemes, and found a way to mold their playing style accordingly. Spezza, however, endured a bit of a struggle.
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The 34-year-old center, as we have already established, is not having the best year offensively. He didn’t score his first goal until mid-November and has endured multiple five-game point droughts throughout the season. A large part of that has to do with how Hitchcock is using him.
Under Ruff’s supervision, Spezza was used as a major asset on offense. He played both first and second line minutes, served on the first power play unit, and had plenty of offensive opportunities in each game.
With Hitchcock, that role is gone. Even from opening night, Spezza’s minutes have been drastically conserved. In his first three seasons with the Dallas Stars, he skated somewhere between 16 and 17 minutes per game. This season, he is averaging just 13:31 per game, his second lowest mark since joining the NHL.
And when you factor in how many of those minutes are spent on the power play, the number goes down even further. It’s obviously been a struggle for Spezza not being as influential of a forward as he used to, but that’s okay. Hitchcock needs him in a certain role, and it finally looks like Spezza is starting to become comfortable with that.
But what is that role? Well, if we had to boil it down, it would probably read something like, “Veteran guy who can win big face-offs and contribute on the power play while being a leader for the younger players and help them succeed.” Though that doesn’t mention the words “elite” or “top line” or “even strength,” it doesn’t have to. The point is that Hitch has Spezza in a role that he needs filled and no. 90 is getting adjusted.
After the scratch on Monday that came at the feet of a five-game points drought, Spezza has scored two power play goals and tallied two assists in three total games. He is fourth on the team in power play goals with four and is fifth overall in power play points with eight. His face-off win percentage currently sits at 54.7 percent, which is one of his highest totals since joining the Stars.
Spezza has spent the last few weeks of the season alongside young forwards like Mattias Janmark and Remi Elie. With this lineup, Spezza has the chance to help grow the young wingers but has also developed solid chemistry with them. As a good referencing point, Mattias Janmark has two goals and Remi Elie has a goal and an assist in the last three games. The trio is becoming a consistent line and are giving Hitchcock a solid depth option on offense.
All in all, it’s been a tough year for Jason Spezza. For the first time in a long time, he’s not playing in the spotlight and is being quickly transformed into a role-playing depth forward.
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But for right now, that’s where the Dallas Stars need him. And as the season continues to roll down and points become more and more critical, it will be nice to have Spezza producing in every way possible.