From Healthy Scratch to Top Four: The Rise of Jordan Spence
Jordan Spence has earned Travis Green's trust and established himself as one of Ottawa's most dependable defencemen.
Co-host, Coming In Hotter and host, The Hot Seat
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3 playersJordan Spence has gone from watching games in the press box to becoming one of the Ottawa Senators' most reliable defencemen.
It's been quite the transformation.
When the Senators acquired Spence from Los Angeles in the summer of 2025, there were questions about whether the undersized defenceman could handle a bigger role after finding success on the Kings' third pairing.
Spence has answered those questions, and then some.
Spence leads all Senators defencemen in expected goals share at 54 per cent at five-on-five according to Natural Stat Trick while playing top-four minutes.
“He had a good year last year. He's taken off and he's having a good year this year. He's a good defenceman in the league, so it's not surprising,” said Travis Green.
Spence has gone from a frequent healthy scratch to begin his Senators tenure into an elite top-four, defenceman that can munch minutes with the best of them.
This season, because of the Senators’ injuries on the blueline, Spence has played alongside Tyler Kleven and Thomas Chabot and a rotating cast of others in the top-four.
Meanwhile, his pairing with Thomas Chabot has become one of the best in the NHL: with them on the ice, the Senators outscored opponents 10 to six at five-on-five with a lofty 60 per cent expected goal share according to Moneypuck.com. For pairings that have played over 150 minutes this season, Chabot-Spence are fourth in expected goals share ahead of the likes of Devon Toews-Cale Makar, Matias Ekhlom-Evan Bouchard and Lane Hutson-Noah Dobson.
Yet, he still thinks his partnership is just scratching the surface of its potential.
“The biggest thing is for me that Chabot and I, we’ve been playing well defensively. I think our breakouts can be a little better (and) cleaner,” Spence told ComingInHot.ca.
But it’s not just Chabot he’s excelled with. When Chabot went down with an injury, Spence reunited with Kleven, his partner for the majority of last season, which yielded an excellent 57 percent expected goals at five-on-five according to Moneypuck.com.
Spence has played the most total ice-time on the Senators, and even in his time without Kleven and Chabot has overall produced excellent analytics.
Spence's increased role reflects the trust he's earned from head coach Travis Green.
It wasn't always that way.
Spence dealt with an injury when he first arrived in Ottawa and struggled to find his game. He was a healthy scratch on several occasions early in the 2025-26 season.
But as his defensive play improved and he became more comfortable in Green's system, so did his responsibilities.
His development eventually earned him a four-year, $20-million contract extension.
However, there is still plenty of room for Spence to grow and he’s still hungry.
“I'm also still trying to provide offence as much as I can, and to create chances in the offensive zone.”
Spence has had a slow start to the season offensively with one goal and three points in his first 18 games.
But there is proof of concept of Spence’s offensive abilities, as he set career highs in goals with seven and points with 31 last season, despite playing on the third pair the majority of the season.
Nevertheless, even without significant offensive production Spence is an analytics darling.
Positive in the top left indicates the offence a player creates when on the ice, and the blue in the bottom left indicates the defence in terms of offensive suppression when on the ice.
Spence tilts the ice in the favour of the Senators at an elite rate both offensively and defensively this season according to HockeyViz.com.
Courtesy of HockeyStats.com
When you watch the tape, Spence makes very few mistakes. He’s almost always in control, using his elite skating ability and tenacity to win battles, break pucks out and read the game at a high level which makes things look simple even when they wouldn’t be for most NHL defenceman.
“You’re going to have bad games, but I think you're trying to minimize as many mistakes as you can during the games when you're not feeling it. And I think that's my biggest goal this year,” he said.
Interestingly, in the NHL there is still a stigma against smaller defencemen like Spence, who is five-foot-eleven.
Spence learned at a young age to be tenacious, and that he can still throw his body around.
“I think I realized that, when I turned pro in the AHL, and then when I got in the NHL, you don't have to be big to take hits or make a hit, and you can (have) good body positioning.”
Will and skill are just as important as size, and Spence is a perfect example of that.
All his career many people have doubted Spence, so he’s not resting on his laurels in spite of an exceptional start with Ottawa.
“You can never take it for granted that you're playing the top-four role,” said Spence.