I don't understand these people who expect the team to keep Spezza. He's over 30 with 1 year left on his contract. He's not going to resign on a short deal. Do you want to keep this player for 6 - 7 million a year for the next 5-8 years on a NTC/NMC?
Spezza was just given the captaincy and is a point per game player over his career. He just found chemistry with Ales Hemsky and was tearing it up in the second half, after an injury plagued start. He may demand 6-7M for the next few years, but it's not unreasonable to think that increasing cap + aging Spezza will mean this is a front-loaded contract where we eat a lot of cap now, and in a few years when we contend, he's got a very friendly cap hit. Not too hard to think that Murray may keep him around.
He's an excellent offensive player, who thrives on the PP. But he's not going to be a core player when this team is truly ready to compete, which at a minimum is 2+ years from now....I would guess closer to 4 years. He'll be a complimentary piece. Players of his ilk don't age particularly well: Jason Allison, Jeremy Roenick, Pierre Turgeon, etc.
I think he'll still be a core piece in 2-4 years. May not be the go-to centre, necessarily, but will probably platoon with Turris and/or Zibby. That doesn't seem like a terrible scenario, to me.
I don't agree with your comparables. Roenick played a grinding game, and Allison played with no mobility. Spezza hasn't been a grinder - he's a peripheral player, and is far better at skating, even when injured, than Allison was when healthy.
Turgeon is the only comparable that I agree with, and even then, his decline can probably be attributed to the Star's coaches - Hitchcock and Tippett - who are defense-first coaches, not two-way, puck-possession coaches.
In fact, the similarities between this and the Yashin situation are pretty striking. Granted, Yashin wanted more money. But if Ottawa was willing to pay him, he would have gladly stuck around. But he was not a player that would ever lead this team to the next level. The team recognized this and subsequently traded him for I think what most people would consider an excellent return.
There are very few similarities, IMO, between Yashin and Spezza. Yashin got dicked around in the early days by a management team that was praying Daigle would break out. He felt underpaid, and resented the team for it. He made demands and dictated how he was going to be treated.
The 'won't lead this team to the next level' stuff is purely subjective. I will again call attention to the fact that Chara, Thornton, Yzerman, Alfredsson, (and many others) have been called out for their perceived inability to lead a team to the Cup. All of them are now considered among the best leaders in the league. Fans like to think they have a good read on the players, but we rarely have candid access to the room to assess Spezza's leadership first hand. We don't know how the players respond to his pep talks, to his play, etc.
Spezza has never carried a line by himself outside of 2011-2012. Even then when things were going poorly, he was put back on a line with Alfredsson.
Who on this team has carried a line?
Alfredsson is arguably the only player post-lockout to 'carry' a line for the Senators. The team made a huge mistake letting him walk.
Spezza is a great opportunity to continue the rebuild properly. Trade him and maximize the return for something similar to Yashin's return: A high draft pick, a good young player, and a low end player.
I agree that Spezza is a good opportunity to bring on new pieces.
The problem is that people have been impatient about this rebuild / retool after just three seasons. How much patience will we have if we turn into the new Edmonton if we blow it up again?
Moreover, will we even be able to land the right pieces for an unsigned Spezza?
Teams need to mortgage the future when they are in that contending window. Ottawa is nowhere near this point. They could make the playoffs next year, they could even make it out of the first round...but anybody who has been a fan of this team for more than a few years know what a truly competitive team looks like. One that can dictate pace, scoring, and control. This team isn't it, hasn't been the last 2 years regardless of the playoffs, and needs more than a few changes to make it so.
Have we mortgaged the future? The Ryan trade is the only real example, and Ryan may still end up being a better player than Silfv, Noesen, and that 1st. Moreover, does re-signing Spezza mean mortgaging the future? I think not.
This team needs to do a proper rebuild with players who play both ends of the ice correctly. The trades in 2011 were only of secondary pieces. Only Mike Fisher and maybe Chris Kelly could be considered core pieces, and that is pushing it with Kelly. Trading Ruutu, Kovalev, Elliot, and Campoli were just dumps to allow space for fresh blood. Considering all of them but one is out of the league less than 3 years later tells you how valuable they really were.
So a rebuild can't be really considered a rebuild when you only trade one core piece. It's a retooling...and not far enough.
If Kelly isn't considered a core player, then the core was literally Fisher, Spezza, Alfie, Phillips, and Karlsson. Only Phillips has lost value of those, and I doubt anybody would have traded Alfie back then after he said he wanted to stay.
