Ottawa Senators Jason Spezza taking major pay cut to play in Switzerland during Lockout -NHL Update
For Ottawa Senators superstar forward, Jason Spezza, taking a major pay cut and seeing the whole situation after making estimated costs, it seems like one of the National Hockey League’s (NHL) best players will be playing for free.
Spezza is looking to continue playing in view of the next NHL regular season being under serious threat of a lockout for a long time due to the extreme deadlock between the league and Players’ Association. But playing literally for free is one of the last
things on the superstar, who usually makes about $8 million annually with Ottawa in North America.
Due to a $50,000 insurance fee per month, Spezza’s stay with Rapperswii-Jona Lakers of the Switzerland hockey league, the All-Star is not expecting to be saving anything on the side.
“I’m pretty much going over there for free, just to keep playing,” Spezza said at Bell Sensplex Thursday, according to the Ottawa Sun. “It’s more just about that I hope, when the season gets started, I can kind of hit the ground running and be feeling real
good about my game, and then be ready to step in.”
Spezza’s departure from North America is expected sometime next week around Tuesday or even Wednesday and his debut is reportedly on September 28 against ZSC Lions, or could even be held further for their match against EHC Biel.
With no preseason planned, along with training camp already out the window, delaying his decision even further just seemed to be out of the question for Jason Spezza, a former second overall pick.
“At this point, with exhibition games already cancelled, it’s probably going to be a shortened training camp. If I get a chance to play in some games, hopefully it will be an advantage for me,” Spezza added.
Spezza potted 84 points (34 goals, 50 assists) in 80 games played during the previous season and has definitely been a leading player for the Ottawa Senators ever since being picked back in 2001.
It will certainly be interesting to see how he performs with the Lakers in Switzerland during the next hockey year.
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