Former Los Angeles Kings defenseman Jordan Spence will be sitting in the press box for the second straight game for the Ottawa Senators.
Furthermore, this will be the fourth game he’s been sidelined for since joining the Senators for the 2025-26 season. Ottawa will be taking on the Philadelphia Flyers at home.
Spence was traded to Ottawa just ahead of July 1. In exchange, the Kings received a 2026 sixth-round pick and a 2025 third-round pick, which was flipped to the Carolina Hurricanes in a separate trade.
Nonetheless, since Spence was moved to Ottawa, he’s recorded four assists in four games this regular season. In fact, he’s tied with right winger Drake Batherson and defenseman Jake Sanderson in assists to lead the team.
Furthermore, Sanderson and Spence have spent a short time on the same pairing, just over 12 minutes to be exact.
However, in that span, the D-pairing is sixth in the NHL for expected goals for percentage and ninth in goals for per 60 minutes, according to moneypuck.com. It’s worth noting that their ranking is among forward lines and defense pairings to at least play 10 minutes together.
Spence has been utilized as a third-pairing D-man with Ottawa, a similar role to his final years in Los Angeles. With that, the 24-year-old has averaged 18:26 of ice time in the four games he played. That’s the most ice time he’s averaged since his rookie season with the Kings in 2021-22.
In his last season with Los Angeles, Spence had an impressive campaign, recording a career-high 28 points, registering four goals and 24 helpers on the year.
More impressively, Spence finished the season last year with a plus-minus rating of plus-23, the fourth best on the entire Kings roster.
In Spence’s spot, Finnish D-man Nikolas Matinpalo will be playing his fourth game this campaign.
He is a familiar body for the Senators, who bounced up and down between the AHL’s Belleville Senators and Ottawa. So far, the 27-year-old has averaged 14:19 of ice time and has a minus-one rating in three appearances.
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