It sounds like you can take one more center off the market, as Senators GM Bryan Murray is saying that he has not reached out to actively trade Jason Spezza. Speculation has soared as we neared the draft that the Senators would be sending the star center elsewhere in a trade, and according to Murray that just isn’t the case.
Murray has reached out and spoken with Spezza and reassured him that he is part of the future plans for the team and that he is not planning on trading him, despite fielding a couple of calls from other teams about Spezza’ availablity. From the Ottawa Sun:
“There’s nothing going on with Jason. There are so many people concerned about my job that I couldn’t dare make a trade if I wanted to make one,” Murray said Thursday .
“There’s nothing going on with him right now and there’s very little in any conversations with any teams at any rate. This has gotten bigger than it should have and it’s a nonexistent thing at this point.”
So now we have another top-line center no longer on the market, making the value of players like Mike Ribeiro and Marc Savard soar. The Bruins are gearing up for the possibility of adding Tyler Seguin to the roster next season and have too many centers, while the Dallas Stars are in dire need of some defensive help. With Spezza appearing to be staying in Ottawa, the return for the centers that are available could be increasingly substantial.