Jason Spezza, Kyle Dubas reunite on Pittsburgh Penguins administration workforce

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Jason Spezza is following Kyle Dubas from Toronto to Pittsburgh — and fairly presumably the eventual function of Penguins’ basic supervisor.

Dubas, their new president of hockey operations, had stated he would maintain the GM’s place on an interim foundation and now has the perfect candidate lined up in his 40-year-old former particular assistant with the Leafs. Chris Pryor had already been let go as an assistant within the Pens’ main entrance workplace home cleansing two months in the past.

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There’s no questioning Spezza’s loyalty to Dubas after he resigned from the Leafs the identical day that president Brendan Shanahan sacked Dubas in what’s being spun by the Leafs as a late try by Dubas to realize extra autonomy and wage within the extension provided him by the membership.

The favored Spezza is certainly a loss for the group, as he’d performed successfully for a few years earlier than retiring and had the belief of the dressing room in his new front-office function. However he’s not the primary ex-player intern the Leafs moved on from, reminiscent of Joe Nieuwendyk a number of years in the past and new GM Brad Treliving made an astute rent of one other revered NHLer in Shane Doan final week to interchange Spezza.

With a 12 months to understand how all points of the hockey workplace work, Spezza will probably be that rather more helpful to Dubas.

“He confirmed great work ethic, curiosity, and skill to construct relationships all through all departments on the workforce facility,” a press release from Dubas learn on Wednesday. “His transfer from the roster to the front-office workers additionally helped make the hockey operations division, teaching workers and taking part in roster a extra cohesive and collaborative unit. He’ll add an awesome perspective to our membership, and we’re excited to observe him attain his potential in administration.”

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Each Spezza and Doan, who had been with the Arizona Coyotes as Chief Improvement Officer, are valued front-office catches. Every performed greater than 1,000 video games performed, was generally known as a pacesetter and industrious participant on the ice, whereas very a lot in tune with in the present day’s younger NHL celebrity class.

Spezza hitching himself to the Dubas wagon is an enormous dedication, given he’s altering addresses once more after little question hoping he and his spouse would keep in his native GTA to boost their 4 daughters after 19 NHL years spent principally in Ottawa and Dallas.

Spezza does have some Pittsburgh connections, successful a gold medal on the 2015 world championships with Penguins captain Sidney Crosby and being a teammate of each Pittsburgh’s participant growth staffer Matt Cullen in Ottawa and hockey operations advisor Trevor Daley in Dallas.

The Penguins didn’t make Spezza accessible to the media on Wednesday.

lhornby@postmedia.com