Previous Rank: N/A; Reader Rank: 9

Ottawa’s acquisition of Jordan Spence this offseason – and what that means for the Senators’ defence corps as a whole – is the biggest on-ice change for a team coming into the 2025-26 season with bigger expectations and even larger aspirations.

In this article, I aim to take you through why I’m happy our staff ranked him at 6 and convince you, dear readers, why I think you can get more excited about his potential.

Drafted by the Moncton Wildcats in the second round, 20th overall, in the 2018 QMJHL Draft, Spence’s journey to get to that point is quite the story. You can listen to Jordan tell it in his own words here; in summary: he was born in Manly, Australia and lived there for the first year of his life before moving to Osaka, Japan – his mother’s home nation – where he remained until the age of 12. Like many children in Japan, Jordan was a multi-sport athlete, taking up baseball and hockey, where he played forward and took advantage of the many hours of practice time to hone his puck skills. He used to spend his summer in Prince Edward Island, and his family moved there full-time when he was 12 after he committed to being a hockey player over a baseball player; it was here where a coach moved him to defence and it became his preferred position.

He was named the QMJHL’s Rookie of the Year with a 43-assist, 49-point season in 2018-19 – his 0.72 points-per-game rate ranked 13th among all defenders league-wide, and ranked top among draft-eligible defenders by a good margin. His three points in seven games at the U18s for Team Canada, alongside future teammate Dylan Cozens, was respectable, too, and most pre-draft rankings had him solidly at the end of the second-round or start of the third-round – with Bob McKenzie’s consensus rankings from NHL scouts placing him 74th. Los Angeles ended up drafting him in the fourth-round, 95th overall. What a steal!

He rewarded them (and proved others wrong) by being named the QMJHL’s Defenceman of the Year during the following season, recording 52 points in 60 games for a 0.87 points-per-game rate.

During the COVID-19 shortened season, Spence started the year with Moncton, recording 16 points in 13 games, before being traded to Val D’Or – where he first donned the number he’ll wear for the Senators, #10. He maintained his scoring rate with his new team in the regular season with 24 points in 19 games and upped his play in the playoffs, with 20 points in 15 games. Spence made Canada’s World Juniors team that year, alongside Ridly Greig, but only got to play two games before the tournament was cancelled.

Spence followed up his excellent QMJHL play with a stellar start to his AHL career. His 42 points in 46 games with the Ontario Reign ranked eighth among all AHL defenders, earning Spence AHL all-star and all-rookie team honours. More importantly for Spence, his play helped him end the year with the Kings, where he suited up for 24 regular season games and three playoff contests. He recorded eight points, including his first NHL goal – assisted by Arthur Kaliyev – in a 4-2 win over Seattle.

In 2022-23, the Kings once-injury ravished defence corps were fully healthy, with Doughty, Durzi, Roy, Anderson, and Walker all playing 70+ games. This meant that the Kings prospects (Spence, Clarke, Björnfot, and Moverare) played in the AHL, with Spence once again topping the group with 45 points in 56 games.

Those are quality prospects, so it’s meaningful that Spence emerged as the one to earn a full-time role with the Kings in 2023-24. In 71 games, he recorded 24 points in 71 games in a third-pair role with ex-Sens rearguard Andreas Englund. They crushed their minutes, with the Kings getting a significant offensive boost (xGF/60 from 2.66 without to 2.83 with) without losing too much defence (xGA/60 from 2.29 without to 2.34 with) when Spence was on the ice. Spence suited up in all five of the Kings playoff games against the Oilers.

This past season, he started the year with Jacob Moverare on the third-pair and ended it alongside Vladislav Gavrikov on the second-pair. Both played better with Spence than without him, and the Kings continued to experience an offensive impact (xGF/60 from 2.45 without to 2.59 with) while now adding significantly better defensive impact (xGA/60 from 2.19 without to 1.94 with) when he was on the ice. Relatively speaking, Spence’s defensive impact would be the second-best on the Senators, just after Artem Zub.

With Spence on the ice, every Kings player (outside of Adrian Kempe) win the scoring chance battle. Gavrikov, already good, plays better with Spence (in black) than without him (84 in red). Moverare goes from experiencing poor on-ice impacts (43 in red) to exceptional (43 in black) with Spence. Data via HockeyViz.

How does Spence do it?

He possesses excellent acceleration and four-way mobility, which he uses to prevent opponents from carrying the puck in against him, while also beating them to the puck when they decide to dump it into his corner. I hope you peeped Spence’s assist numbers from the QMJHL, AHL, and now NHL because they’re signs of his passing ability, which he uses to transition the puck up to his forwards (for secondary assists). In the offensive zone, he generates a bulk of his primary assists by shooting for deflections or setting up teammates for one-timer opportunities – something for Fabian Zetterlund or Shane Pinto to look for when they’re on the ice this season. If the Sens were hoping to generate more 5-on-5 offence by allowing their strong skating defenders like Chabot and Sanderson more of a leash to roam around in the offensive zone, Spence has the tools to join that group.

Data via All Three Zones

So, why did the Kings get rid of him?

You can listen to the rationale directly from the horse’s mouth (at 14:18), as the Kings’ YouTube coverage of the draft has new GM Ken Holland telling Spence:

“We’re going to try to sign another right shot (defender), I don’t think you would’ve had the opportunity you earned at this stage of your career.”

After helping the Oilers beat the Kings for four consecutive seasons – /shudders when thinking about the Battle of Ontario/ – Ken Holland doesn’t have any loyalty to any of the Kings but apparently does with ex-Oilers (and Sens!) defender Cody Ceci, who he signed to replace Spence. Time will tell if Holland’s stated logic of bringing in a more experienced defender will help a now-aging Kings group, but I’m going to take this as much-delayed karma for Sens fans having to watch Ceci harm Ottawa’s ceiling with peak-Karlsson a decade ago.

Traded by the Kings to Ottawa for a third-round pick (No. 67) in the 2025 NHL Draft that the Sens had acquired earlier in the day from Nashville, and a sixth-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft, Steve Staios talked about the transaction on a recent episode of Coming In Hot with Brent Wallace and Jason York. Here are some quotes I selected with my thoughts in bold:

“Yeah, these players don’t come available very often. And it was one that I had gotten on early and stayed on on it. I think try and look at what the value might be and then you work the conversations back and forth to see what the value is around the league and what we were willing to do. It just so happened that we were in a situation where we were with our pick in the draft to be able to move back and gain a pick. And we feel good about that transaction. But certainly, again, another good young defenceman was some real upside and competitive player and depth on defence, right shot defecse. It’s a scarce commodity in the National Hockey League. We’re very pleased and excited about where Spence can take his game.” – Sounds similar to Staios’ rationale when he traded for Fabian Zetterlund!Well, he’s a good puck moving defenseman. He can get the puck up to our forwards and get it to them on time. We talk about five on five offense with our group. We feel like we were still creating at a good enough rate, but as another player on the back end, I think a lot of the times you talk about who’s playing with who as far as wingers, but the importance of having that distributor to get it up up ice on time – adding Spence to the mix to be able to do that. I think is we’re hoping that that generates a few more chances for us a game and then also in the offensive zone, he’s got some great mobility, and can get pucks through to the net. But also, I think what’s really underrated is his competitiveness. He’s not the biggest player, Nick Jensen is not the biggest player, but we saw what he could bring to the table and how he defended. And he’s, you know, when you talk about, when you talk to other players around the league or you hear feedback from players around the league and forwards always have defencemen that they don’t like playing against. And Nick Jensen was certainly one of them. That was very consistent. When we got him, I talked to a couple of our forwards and said, yeah, he’s a real pain in the ass to play against, but he’s not very big or you wouldn’t describe him as overly physical. But I think Spence brings a lot of that dynamic as well.” – Tyler Kleven emerged as a physical presence during the playoffs, but had some of the worst puck-moving metrics on the team during the regular season. Playing with a partner like Spence, or allowing him the stability to have Nick Jensen as a partner when he returns from injury, helps round out the complementary skill sets across each of the Sens’ defensive pairs. He’s an incredible teammate, and that’s a lot of feedback that we’ve gotten when you ask questions. I communicate with our players and they obviously know players that have played with them. He’s a team first guy and, you know, just a great guy in the room and on the ice. And again, we talked about culture and you bring in these types of characters that that are, you know, have this burning desire to win and be a good teammate and put the team ahead of themselves. – You can hear Spence talking about his desire to be a role-model for younger players in this video from Sportsnet. Watching it helped me get a glimpse into the potential leadership traits that Staios has identified in Spence.

Long-term, there’s a spot for Spence in Ottawa. Of the team’s right-shot defenders with NHL experience, Spence is the youngest at 24 – the right age to grow alongside Carter Yakemchuk and Logan Hensler as they find their way in the organization. Staios has talked up Jensen’s impact a lot, but even before his injury, I was worried about the team re-signing a 34-year-old to any sort of multi-year extension. Spence’s RFA status and similar makeup allows the team to try out a ready-made replacement with two years of NHL experience already. His agent at Quartexx is ex-Sens AGM Peter MacTavish – someone who knows Ottawa very well – and they’ve taken the approach to let Spence come into a new environment and see if Travis Green’s style of hockey helps him elevate his game.

This is the only year that Spence could’ve made these rankings, so while we won’t be able to watch him climb this leaderboard any longer, let’s hope he helps the Sens elevate in many other ways.

P.S. We’re going to have to forgive him for naming his dog after Drew Doughty. Maybe being a Maritimer and training with Drake Batherson and Shane Pinto as part of the infamous Nova Scotia group during the offseason is enough to counter that bad energy.