Since though, the Toronto Maple Leafs have let Babcock go and hired Sheldon Keefe and it looks like Spezza could be here to stay.
Throughout this season, it looked like Spezza was never Babcock’s option. He played other players more, like Nick Shore and Dmytro Timashov — which I never understood.
You could get the feeling right off the top, when Babcock scratched Spezza in the home opener because he wasn’t ready to play on the penalty kill. Since then, Spezza has averaged 12 seconds of penalty kill time in 13 games under Babcock.
That was one of the question marks early regarding Babcock’s future with the team.