National Hockey League centre Jason Spezza of Toronto, Ontario retired at the age of 38 on Sunday. According to the Canadian Press, he will now be a special assistant to the general manager within the Toronto Maple Leafs organization.
This past season, Spezza had 12 goals and 13 assists for 25 points in 71 games. He was a -3 with 26 penalty minutes, 10 power-play points, one game-winning goal, 97 shots on goal, 305 faceoff wins, 24 blocked shots, 31 hits, 32 takeaways, and 31 giveaways. Spezza’s game-winning goal came from defenseman Mark Giordano of Toronto, Ontario and right winger Wayne Simmonds of Scarborough, Ontario in a 5-2 Toronto win over the Philadelphia Flyers on April 19, 2022.
For his regular season career, Spezza had 363 goals and 632 assists for 995 points in 1248 games with the Maple Leafs, Ottawa Senators and Dallas Stars. He was a +5 with 604 penalty minutes, 366 power-play points, five shorthanded points, 55 game-winning goals, and 1801 shots on goal. In the playoffs for his career, Spezza had 28 goals and 48 assists for 76 points in 97 postseason games. He was a -2 with 43 penalty minutes, 10 power-play goals, four game-winning goals, and 212 shots on goal.
Also in the postseason, Spezza led all players in playoff points (25), and playoff assists (15) during the 2007 Stanley Cup Playoffs, a playoffs the Senators reached the Stanley Cup Finals before losing to the Anaheim Ducks. Spezza was also the second overall pick by the Senators in the 2001 NHL Draft (selected only behind Ilya Kolvalchuk of the Atlanta Thrashers), and represented the Senators in the 2008 and 2012 NHL All-Star Games. At the international level, Spezza won a gold medal for Canada at the 2012 Spengler Cup and the 2015 World Men’s Hockey Championship in Prague.
