Breaking: Jason Spezza has retired.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have just made a major announcement.

According to a press release from the Maple Leafs' official website, veteran forward Jason Spezza has played his final game in the National Hockey League and is announcing his retirement today.

While this marks the end of Spezza's playing career in the league, based on the messaging from the Leafs today it sounds like this may also be the beginning of the next phase of his career in the NHL. That phase of his career will begin with a role in the Maple Leafs front office as per the Leafs general manager.

General manager Kyle Dubas made the following statement:

"It is difficult to describe just how much of a lasting and positive impact that Jason Spezza made in his three seasons with the Maple Leafs," said Dubas via the team's official website. "Jason's passion for the game of hockey, his desire to continuously push himself and his teammates to improve, as well as his capacity to make strong connections with all members of the organization, have been invaluable. Though today marks the end of his tenure with us as a player, it is a pleasure to have him join our front office to impart all that he has to offer."

Spezza's role will officially be as a special assistant to general manager Kyle Dubas, although exactly what that entails isn't entirely clear at this time.

Spezza's career will come to a close with an impressive 1248 NHL games under his belt, a stretch of play that has included 363 career goals and 632 career assists for a total of 995 total points in the NHL, just 5 shy of the 1,000 point milestone. That is good enough to rank Spezza as the 94th most productive player in NHL history, a pretty incredible accomplishment when you consider some of the legends that have passed through the sport over the decades.

Spezza's own career will have spanned over 2 decades in the NHL, beginning when he was drafted 2nd overall at the 2001 NHL Entry Draft by the Ottawa Senators. He would spend the majority of his career with the Senators before eventually joining the Dallas Stars during the 2012 - 2013 season and eventually the Toronto Maple Leafs during the 2019 - 2020 season.

We wish him all the best on his future endeavors and thank him for the many years he entertained us on the ice.