Doug Maclean slams the Maple Leafs over the Jason Spezza signing.

This week the Toronto Maple Leafs announced that they had come to terms on a brand new contract extension with veteran NHL forward Jason Spezza. The move was widely praised by fans and pundits alike and that should frankly have come as no surprise. Spezza is a massively popular figure in the Toronto markets, both with fans and media, and has done a great deal to endear himself to the Maple Leafs fan base since first joining the team in the 2019 - 2020 National Hockey League season.

Not everyone loved the move however and one of the more vocal critics of the decision to sign Spezza to a new deal has been former NHL general manager Doug MacLean. On a recent episode of Real Kyper at Noon, MacLean expressed his distaste for the move calling it a unabashed attempt from Maple Leafs management to take heat off of the team's recent failures.

"What is that?" asked MacLean when asked about the decision to quickly extend Spezza for another season. "You couldn't have signed Jason 2 months from now and you were worried he was gonna go somewhere? It's a PR move because Spezza is a favorite, they like him, and this takes a little bit of heat off management."

MacLean argued that Maple Leafs management, and I suspect he was referring directly to general manager Kyle Dubas here, should have bigger priorities at the moment than the signing of an aging veteran who has already made it clear he intends to stay in Toronto on numerous occasions. Specifically MacLean chided the Leafs for not focusing on the future of fan favorite Zach Hyman.

"Figure out Hyman ok?" asked MacLean. "Figure out Hyman before you worry about signing Jason Spezza."

To be clear, MacLean has no issue with Spezza as a player and even went so far as to say he likes the man. He did however make it clear that he felt this was a cheap tactic on the part of the Maple Leafs and roasted the Toronto media for being complicit in allowing the team to get away with it.

"When I saw they signed him I just chuckled," said MacLean. "I love Jason, I love what he's done, I like his little giggles, I like lots of things about him and I like the way he's played. But come on just make a deal with him and announce it before training came, like it's a big deal? And then the media come running like 'Oh my god we got Jason signed, oh my god!'" mocked MacLean.

The criticism from MacLean appeared to be focused around the fact that he has serious concerns about the team's ability, and desire, to retain the services of the aforementioned Hyman. MacLean and his co-host Nick Kypreos even went so far as to argue that comments made by Spezza about wishing he could take less money on a new deal could rub the pending unrestricted free agent the wrong way.

"So I'm thinking, is there a guy on the Leafs roster that plays playoff style hockey? Which is what they need more than anything is somebody to play playoff style hockey.... Is there a guy that plays more of a playoff game on their roster than Hyman?" asked MacLean. "Well I'm telling you before I lose Hyman you better do some serious soul searching about how your team is going to perform at playoff time, because he is one guy that brings it."