Silver Nuggets: Would you rather: Spezza edition

Hi folks! As I'm typing this, there are reports that Jason Spezza has just signed a four-year contract extension with the Dallas Stars worth around $7.5M per year. He gets less term, but more money than Bobby Ryan, who was handed a $7.25M extension earlier this year.

Just because this may be something Sens fans wanted to talk about, I decided to ask the question: Would you rather have Spezza signed over Ryan, who would've been traded instead? Or are you happy with the Senators decision to keep Bobby in the fold? Why or why not?

Some interesting talking points here include: the Senators lack of production out of their centremen so far this season, with the second-line centre position being rotated around a fair bit with barely any offensive production. Meanwhile, in Dallas, Spezza is doing usually Spezza things, with 18 points in 20 games, being productive on the powerplay... and a minus-8. His possession numbers are positive though, which is a good sign because they appeared to be dipping last year. Spezza's 53% CF% (shot attempt differential when he was on the ice) at even-strength would be tied for the Senators lead in players who have played 10+ games this season.

However, age is a concern here. Bobby Ryan is younger and more likely to produce over the course of his deal than Spezza, who is in the back-half of his career and has previous injury issues. Bobby Ryan also has a positive PR image, which hasn't been the case with Spezza over the past few years (or ever?). In addition, would the return for Bobby Ryan be greater than what the Senators got for a Spezza, who is generally around the point-per-game mark every season? How does that impact who you'd rather have on the team?

What do you think?

--

Sens Links

• The Senators narrowly beat the Nashville Predators last night! Here are your recaps. [Silver Seven, Rank the Performances, Ottawa Citizen, SensChirp, Senstats, 6th Sens]
• So so so so happy about this. The Senators made 14yo Jonathan Pitre a scout for yesterday night's game against Nashville. Love the community work and I'm sure Jonathan was thrilled. Read his story in the Ottawa Citizen. [Ottawa Senators, Ottawa Citizen]
• Don't forget to take a look at Michaela's Five Thoughts for Friday [Silver Seven]
• In case you missed the came last night, Curtis Lazar was out with a minor injury, so Mike Hoffman and Mark Stone had a chance to play with Mika Zibanejad. I hope this combination gets a chance to stick. [6th Sens, Ottawa Citizen]
• Our Email Hotstove focuses on Mika Zibanejad's play so far this season. MacLean is a big supporter and says that he's doing everything right, except putting up point totals. How long can this realistically continue? [Silver Seven]
• Robin Lehner was fantastic last night. Earlier in the week, the Citizen ran a piece on Lehner citing that patience is a virtue. Hope #TheLehner gets more chances in net. [Ottawa Citizen]
• Wayne Scanlan has a column on how Bobby Ryan is being used by MacLean has a "fixer" for any slumping lines. Is this the most effective usage of the club's highest paid player? [Ottawa Citizen]
• The Bonk's Mullet crew has their preview up for tomorrow afternoon's (!) game against the St. Louis Blues. [Bonk's Mullet]
• Speaking of the hero from the last time Ottawa played St. Louis at home... Amelia has a nice feature on Cody Ceci and the effect he's had on the Ottawa blueline. [Silver Seven]
• Episode 6 of the Sens Callups podcast is out, where the crew talks about the Senators rallying around Bryan Murray while recapping the past two games. [Sens Callups]
• Jeff has a piece on the BSens struggles at home, the reasons for this, and why it differs from last season. [SenShot]
• Chirp has a piece on the defensive concerns, and how Marc Methot can remedy that. [SensChirp]

Sports Links

• I don't mean to beat a dead horse here but the Senators #shouldof done everything they could to get John Klingberg in the Spezza trade. Who is he? A Swedish (yay) defenseman (yay!) who excels at moving the puck out of the zone (YAY!!!). Guess it just made too much sense. [The Score]
• A really great piece on the "eye test" and Alexander Semin. [SI]
• Yost has some good analysis over at TSN on how to evaluate goaltender performance. [TSN]
• Ottawa is a high event team - they take a lot of shots (usually) but also give up a ton of shots. What does this mean? Jen explains. [Puck Daddy]/

Who would you rather have on the Senators given their new contracts?