Will Jason Spezza go down as an underachiever?
- Thread starter Passchendaele
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I think people overvalued him because of how well he played with Heatley and Alfredsson (and vice versa). All three of those guys had their best seasons when together. They're all great players in their own right, they just played much better together.
Erik Alfredsson
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That's not what he's asking.
Spezza has been dealing with injuries for the past couple of season's now, they've probably taken their toll on him. He's always a player that seems to have needed good chemistry to be really good.
Yes. Awesome talent that never managed to pull it all together. Chill dude, but doesn't have a winning attitude. That's OK, not everyone is competitive to the point of insanity. Few people are. But that's what you need to go down as an all time great
Finlandia WOAT
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Brett Hull? Mike Bossy? Kevin McHale (NBA Celtics with Larry Bird)? Mario Lemieux?
Anyways, Spezza played with two all star linemates who fit perfectly with his style in the years that forwards traditionally have the best years of their career, points wise (aka the Steve Yzerman effect). He got older, the linemates declined and were traded, league-wide scoring fell, the Sens lost their awesome defenders to free agency and the team declined as a whole.
Hard to look at the bigger picture and say he underachieved. I'd say he overachieved because of his ideal situation in his early years-right team at the right time.
KrisLetAngry
MrJukeBoy
I still like him and would take him on my team. I think he'll go down as a borderline elite player who hasn't won anything, not unlike many stars in the 80s, 90s, 00s, etc...
He won't stand out as anything special unless he wins something and/or leads his team in doing so.
He won't stand out as anything special unless he wins something and/or leads his team in doing so.
TOML
Registered User
A player with this as his key memorable moment:
Will definitely go down as an underachiever.
Even if he wins in Dallas or wherever, it won't be because of him.
Will definitely go down as an underachiever.
Even if he wins in Dallas or wherever, it won't be because of him.
I don't think so. When healthy he has played at a 70-80 point pace over the course of his career, and has been a fantastic yet someone quiet playmaker throughout. I don't think he ever got enough credit for how good he has been
HockeyThoughts
Delivering The Truth
Erik Alfredsson
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This. I don't really know what people really expected of Spezza. For a 2nd overall pick he's probably had a very good career.
Erik Alfredsson
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He could be the Adam Oates of this generation
That's actually a very good comparison. Very good passer, however his linemates always got the credit (although Alfie deserved it). He might even retire without a cup like Oates.
He could be the Adam Oates of this generation
More like the Jason Allison. Oates broke 50 assists 12 times, that's impressive in any era.
722 points in 734 career games, 52 points in 56 playoff games. I think it's hard to say he's underachieved. Few players have put up better numbers the last decade. He's battled injuries, but he's over 30 now, so a bit of a decline isn't unexpected.
Mmmm I personally think he is a step up over Allison.
By comparison I mean like a elite playmaker that we expected to win something at some time but didn't despite putting up fairly good numbers. Yes I do mention elite because having watched Spezza and not being an Sens fan, hes pretty elite in what he can do in the offensive zone and the Pizza line was pretty effective to say the least.
Oates is in the hof but even during his own time he was overshadowed by the likes of Yzerman, Mario, Sakic etc...etc... for his well perceived one dimensional play style. We can say Spezza is along the same cut of player/career but just a non-hof version. The guy is far from done I think. Just needs to stay healthy.
jetsfan91
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I think so. Wasn't he also one of the rare 16 year olds to make Team Canada? Speeza had some serious hype back in the day. Although you cant fault him for being picked after Kovalchuck. Another player everyone thought would be a super star, and was just simply a star instead. Similar to how I view Speeza.
MayonnaiseOreo
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jetsfan91
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