The end of the Jason Spezza era in Ottawa is officially over. The Senators will be looking for their third captain in 3 years after dealing Spezza and prospect Ludvig Karlsson to the Dallas Stars for winger Alex Chiasson, prospects Nick Paul and Alexander Guptill and the Stars’ second round pick in 2015.
The Senators are reportedly not done dealing yet, and some expect more trades to go down as early as today.
Chaisson is a good young player who will only get better and has a bit of an edge. He can play in the Senators’ top 6 forwards. Chiasson is a 6’3″, 210 lb winger who just played his first full NHL season, netting 13 goals and 35 points but was a -21 on a playoff team.
Guptill is a 6’3″, 185 lb forward who played 3 years at Michigan before going pro with the AHL Texas Stars after the season.
Nick Paul played for the North Bay Battallion, a left winger who scored 26 goals and 40 points this past season.
So the Jason Spezza saga is over, the Senators lost the trade because Chiasson is not and never will be as talented as Spezza, and Senators didn’t get a 1st round pick back, it will likely be a mid-late second rounder next season.
However, as is the custom with trading top end players, you just hope to get as much return as you can when a trade is asked for.
It might have been better to wait a while to maximize return before the start of the season, but if Bryan Murray has other irons in the fire this might have needed to be the first domino to fall.