Toronto Maple Leafs: Jason Spezza earning bigger role

Jason Spezza had a mixed start to his time with the Toronto Maple Leafs, but fully deserves a bigger role under new head coach Sheldon Keefe.

General manager Kyle Dubas brought Jason Spezza to the Toronto Maple Leafs to provide the team with a veteran presence, something that many thought then-coach Mike Babcock would have relished having.

Interestingly, though, Babcock seemed to make Spezza one of the guys that he didn’t favour and ended up underusing the former Ottawa Senators captain.

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Spezza, like a model professional, let his work on the ice speak for itself and has put himself in a position where he should be utilised in a larger way than he was under Babcock.

In the 15 games he has played this season, Spezza has produced three goals and five assists – averaging around a point every other game.

If Spezza played a full 82-game season and maintained this scoring pace, he would finish the year with around 43/44 points.

This is a significant step up on the production he showed with the Dallas Stars over the past two seasons, where he registered 26 and 27 total points respectively.

The 36-year-old has managed to do this despite averaging just 11:18 on the ice since arriving in Canada’s largest city, playing two whole minutes less than in his previous two seasons with the Stars.

Spezza has also shown that he is still a fairly strong face-off specialist, winning 50.9% of the draws he has participated in this season.

His usage under Babcock seemed fairly typical of the stubborn veteran coach, who liked players to play more defence than they typical do – often resulting in lower offensive output.

Spezza, however, went against the grain and has some truly impressive possession numbers. Prior to last night’s win against the Colorado Avalanche, Spezza had started in the offensive zone just 43.8% of the time.

Despite this, Spezza had an astonishing 59.5% Corsi rating. Over 55% is often considered ‘elite’ and the Mississauga native has continued to show that there is still plenty of gas left in the tank.

His usage under Keefe has already seen his stats adjust slightly, with his offensive zone starts now reaching 44.7% and his Corsi rating still an exceptionally high 58%.

Spezza recently spoke to the Toronto Sun about an expected increase in his role under his new head coach and, with the impressive underlying numbers that he has, it is unsurprising to see the veteran given more opportunities.

This is not to suggest he is given a role on the top two lines, but a slight increase in his ice time and more usage in the offensive zone could see the Leafs benefit from a player that still has elite hands, even though he is well into the twilight of his career.

What do you think Leafs fans? Are you pleased to see Spezza performing well despite the early adversity he faced? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!