Jason Spezza wants to stay in Ottawa… Sort of

Earlier today, James took you down the developing ugly path in Ottawa surrounding Jason Spezza and his unhappiness in Ottawa. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? After all, this is kind of how things got going for Dany Heatley last season. Although Spezza has come out and said that he doesn’t want to be traded from Ottawa, he doesn’t sound all that convincing either.

While making an appearance in Toronto to promote a charitable endeavour to help underprivileged children play hockey, Spezza was asked, point-blank: “Do you want to go back to the Ottawa Senators?”

“Yeah,” he said, stammering before a media relations attaché ended the line of questioning.

Well that’s just comically awkward and kind of fitting for how things have broken down throughout the history of the Ottawa Senators. Dany Heatley, Ray Emery and Alexandre Daigle were all big time players for the Senators who also had big time mental shakedowns. Maybe we’re wrong here but when you think hockey cities that would be a “media pressure cooker” you don’t usually think of Ottawa being at the top of the list. Perhaps the Senators should have a team psychologist on hand.

Then again, perhaps craziness is contagious, at least that’s what you’d think if you saw that the Edmonton Journal’s Jim Matheson suggested that the Oilers mix it up with the Senators in trade talks this summer for Spezza.

With the Ottawa Senators’ Jason Spezza seemingly disgruntled with his lot in life in the nation’s capital, here’s how the Oilers might solve the Taylor vs. Tyler debate.

Draft winger Taylor Hall on June 25 with their No. 1 pick at the NHL entry draft, pass on centre Tyler Seguin and trade for Spezza later.

The Senators would almost assuredly take the same three players that were on the table for winger Dany Heatley last summer — Dustin Penner, Andrew Cogliano and Ladislav Smid — in exchange for Spezza, who would become the Oilers’ much-needed first-line centre.

Being a nut for huge trades, I would love to have things break down like this, especially with the way it could potentially make the Bruins twist and turn at the draft when it comes to the whole draft debate. Using the same pieces the Oilers were going to use in a deal for Dany Heatley, however, just comes off as lazy rumor mongering. This would also bank on having the Senators both be OK with dealing their top centerman and running with Mike Fisher as their new top guy in the middle. Call me crazy, but I don’t imagine most teams would be cool with having a  45-55 point per year man as their top center.

While I’m sure that Matheson is just spit-balling ideas here in what is akin to the doldrums of summer for a hockey writer, perhaps erasing the name “Heatley” off all those stories from last year and replacing it with “Spezza” should be better left to other less-reputable sources.