In last year’s NHL Draft, the Ottawa Senators acquired Jordan Spence from the Los Angeles Kings for a 2025 third-round pick and a 2026 sixth-round pick. At the time, Spence was coming off his second full season in the NHL, scoring 28 points in 79 games as a bottom-pairing defenseman with the Kings. He was entering the second year of a two-year deal, which came with a cap hit of $1.5 million. Now, Spence is reaching the end of his first season with the Senators. The next step for Steve Staios and the organization should be obvious – it’s time to extend Jordan Spence. Let’s get into the details.
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Jordan Spence by the numbers
Spence’s numbers to date are as follows:
- 67 games, 6 goals, 28 points, 18:27 time on ice/game
Spence has hit a career-high in goals, he’s hit a career-high in points, and he’s playing more than ever. This is especially true recently. Here are Spence’s stats since Nick Jensen went out with an injury on March 11:
- 13 games, 2 goals, 9 points, 23:38 time on ice/game
During this time, the Senators have seen 12 different defensemen in their lineup. They were without Chabot and Sanderson for most of the season. Spence has stepped up in the biggest way. On back-to-back nights, he played 26+ minutes as the Senators defeated both the Rangers and Red Wings in low-scoring games. Two days later, he played a career-high 27:48 against the Penguins. However, that career high didn’t last long. Spence played 30:48 minutes against the Sabers this week due to an injury to Kleven.
Misrepresentation of Spence’s game
Let’s say it plainly – the Los Angeles Kings were wrong about Jordan Spence. To add to this, Travis Green was wrong about Spence earlier this season, when Spence was a healthy scratch for the first nine games of the season. Spence was placed in a specific role – small-sized, puck moving, defending from deep. The 5’11”, 188-pound Spence was essentially viewed as good enough to play in the NHL, but not good enough, or big enough, to play big minutes. From the Senators’ perspective, think about how Chris Wideman was used when the Senators made the conference finals in 2016-17.
Early in the season, Spence’s play seemed to be in line with the narrative – he scored five points in his first five games, but he was caught off guard late in a game against the Islanders when Anders Lee scored the game winner. Once he showed that he should be in the lineup in every game, Spence showed that he was by no means a soft player. He fights hard and is willing to play a physical game. This season he has 2.47 hits per 60 minutes. By comparison, Artem Zab is at 2.53. Both players will take hits here and there, but they mainly win through intelligence, hard work, and taking the puck out of the player’s possession.
Spence’s next contract
Spence will be a restricted free agent this summer. I think it will be challenging for both sides to work out a long-term agreement. I hope senators don’t want to settle for a short-term deal. Spence can become an unrestricted free agent in 2028. This leaves a four- or five-year deal as a realistic middle ground.
When Artem Zab signed a four-year extension in December of 2022, it took up 5.51% of the cap space. Zub had averaged just over 20 minutes per game in 142 games with the Senators up to that point. Obviously, this gives him a longer track record as a top four D-man than Spence.
Next year’s projected range will be 5.5% of $5.7 million. That’s a bit much, considering Spence has primarily been a bottom pairing D-man. If the Senators consider Spence as a top four D-man, something like this might make sense:
- 4 years, $20 million total, $5 million per season
senator comparable
Remember when the Senators traded Erik Karlsson to the San Jose Sharks? One contributor to that trade was Dylan DeMello. DeMelo then played really well here for a year and a half, before Pierre Dorion traded him to the Winnipeg Jets. It was during the rebuild that Dorian felt he needed to acquire as many picks as possible. It was quite clear that DeMelo was undervalued at the time. He was traded for only a third-round pick. He played over six seasons with the Jets as a top-four defenseman most of the time.
Around the same time the Senators took the opportunity to draft Artem Zub out of the KHL. Zub, like Spence, was a healthy individual to begin his time with the Senators. Like Spence, he quickly showed that he should not have been a healthy scratch. He is now in his sixth year with the Sens as a top-four D-man.
My point is this. You keep getting gifts from time to time. The Senators were gifted Dylan DeMelo, but then traded him to the Jets for a disappointing return. The Senators were also gifted with Zab, who was completely unknown in the NHL upon his arrival from Russia. Now they have been gifted Jordan Spence, thanks to the LA Kings choosing to sign Cody Ceci to play on their right side.
final thoughts
The trade of Senators Jacob Chykrun for Nick Jensen did not work out, with Jensen falling short this year. They were apparently considering trading for others like McKenzie Weegar and Rasmus Andersson. As it turns out, the top four right-shot D-men they were looking for were right here all along. Jordan Spence has shown himself to be a capable all-round defenseman. He deserves a new contract, and the Senators should be grateful that an offseason trade for a so-called depth D-man worked out so well in their favor.
#time #senators #extend #Jordan #exclusivity
