Spezza says so long, Switzerland

Jason Spezza‘s Swiss adventure is over.

That’s the word out of Ottawa on Wednesday as Spezza informed his club team, Rapperswill-Jona, he’s headed back to North America.

More, from Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun:

The Senators centre has informed the Rapperswill-Jona Lakers he will not be returning — at least for now — after winning the Spengler Cup with Team Canada Monday. He will return to Ottawa to see if there’s going to be a collective bargaining agreement in place for a shortened NHL season.

The Lakers confirmed on their website Wednesday morning that Spezza was on his way home because he’s confident the league and the NHLPA are going to get an agreement in place by the Jan. 19 deadline to resume playing.

Few locked-out NHLers have enjoyed a more successful European campaign than Spezza.

He joined Rapperswil early (mid-September), played a ton of hockey (29 games with the Lakers, four with Team Canada at the Spengler), racked up a ton of points (30, 11th in Swiss league scoring) and, perhaps most importantly, avoided injury.

All told, Ottawa could be in pretty solid shape when (if?) play resumes.

Spezza is just one on a long list of Senators that played extensively overseas during the work stoppage, joining Erik Karlsson, Kyle Turris, Erik Condra, Peter Regin, Colin Greening, Milan Michalek, Mike Lundin and Zack Smith.