Ottawa Senators End Jason Spezza Era With Trade To Dallas Stars

Center Jason Spezza is officially not a member of the Ottawa Senators anymore. The Sens moved their longtime forward to the Dallas Stars for Alex Chiasson, Alex Guptill, Nicholas Paul and a second-round draft pick in 2015. The Stars also received forward Ludwig Karlsson along with Spezza.

The deal has neither team eating any salary, so Spezza wanting out of Ottawa is the bigger story here. Spezza served as captain of the Sens for the first season last year and has been a part of the organization for almost 15 years. It seemed the Senators wanted to try and keep him but eventually wanted to honor Spezza’s desire to be traded.

Ottawa got some players in return along with the draft pick to try and salvage this move, but the trade could greatly benefit Dallas next season. The Stars have now quietly added two top-tier centers in the last year between Spezza and Tyler Seguin.

It’s certainly a rough way to end a long and lucrative relationship for Spezza and the Senators organization. He was the second overall pick by Ottawa in the 2001 draft and has played all 686 of his NHL games in a Senator uniform. Spezza made it clear that he wanted to be moved, and now the Stars are the unlikely beneficiaries.

It was unlikely because originally the Stars didn’t seem to be anywhere on Spezza’s map in terms of teams he wanted to join. In any case, his long career in Ottawa is over and all of a sudden the Stars are much deeper at the center position. With free agency just getting underway, there are sure to be many more transactions to follow in the coming hours and days.