And, just like that, the Dion Phaneuf era in Toronto has come to an uneventful close.
While Last Word on Sports reported the trade Tuesday, we’ve decided to take a long look at how moving Phaneuf out impacts the future, both immediate and long-term. Aside from amassing 196 points in a Leafs uniform, the beleaguered former captain will be remembered far more for the criticism he generated over six seasons than any on-ice contributions he made to the team’s fortunes.
Trading Phaneuf: Optics and Implications
Some will contend he deserved the ire, while others will think he got off easy. A miniscule contingent, mostly teammates, will say he was wrongly vilified by fans and media across his six years with one of the league’s most frustrating franchises to watch, to say nothing about playing for.
It was a frosty Sunday morning back in 2010 when the particulars of the blockbuster deal that blind-sided the hockey world were announced. Phaneuf was suddenly a Toronto Maple Leaf, and no one saw it coming. An equally stunning announcement occurred Tuesday morning, detailing the transfer of the captain’s professional rights to what has traditionally been Toronto’s biggest regional rival, the Ottawa Senators.
The optics and implications of such a trade are far reaching, on so many levels. We can start by contemplating just how very little the organization apparently valued his contribution to the cause by even considering, much less following through on trading their captain to not just a divisional rival, but in the eyes of most Leaf fans, the enemy. Imagine Doug Gilmour or Mats Sundin lacing ‘em up and taking to the ice with a Sens jersey pulled on. Did your skin just crawl a touch there, Leafs fans? Not even John Ferguson Jr. would dare make such a deal, not for all the underachieving goaltenders and one-time 40-goal-scorers in the history of the game.
Clearly, Leaf management isn’t concerned about such sentimentality, at least not where Phaneuf is concerned, and that should tell you plenty about how much he really meant to the organization. Can you blame them? Probably not, when Phaneuf will likely be remembered as the most forgettable captain in the modern history of the team he now calls his rival. The only question remaining is whether or not he gets booed as loudly as former Sens captain Daniel Alfredsson was every time he touched the puck in Toronto.
Another consideration is the timing. With thirty-odd games to go on the season, it has been clear for some time that playoffs are yet again a lost cause in Toronto. Year one of the Mike Babcock as head coach era will no doubt be denoted as a season of identifying core pieces going forward, with a view to their development.
In short, “garbage-time’ has come early. Points mean nothing right now. It’s time to unload those expiring contracts, promote a handful of call-ups, demand they compete hard and don’t cheat on effort, then lose honestly, and often. Without saying as much, the Leafs brass are thinking as much about the not-too-distant future – AKA draft day – as they are about the long haul. Make no mistake, they want every opportunity to land that 20% chance at drafting American-born future superstar Auston Matthews, an absolute lock for the first overall pick. While there are no bad choices among this year’s top five draft selections, Matthews, a natural centre , appears genetically engineered to win championships, and stands head and shoulders above the rest of the pack.
The Leafs have drafted potential top-line centres in William Nylander and Mitch Marner, however, neither have the physical tools at this point to match up against the likes of Anze Kopitar, Evgeni Malkin, or even middleweights like Nathan MacKinnon, Tyler Seguin and Patrice Bergeron. Some might argue that not unlike Nazem Kadri before them, it will be another three to four years before either Nylander or Marner will be ready to slot in at centre on the big club, and that ultimately they’d be better suited to work on on the wing as opposed to squaring off down the middle with the league’s best.
Matthews comes with no such concerns. He’s already physically mature enough to walk into a top-six role on any team you or I would care to name and make an impact. Toronto has been dying on the vine waiting for a legitimate top line centre to emerge since Sundin left Hogtown almost a decade ago, and if ever there was a reason to bite the bullet and shoot for the moon on draft day, this might be that time.
I’ve never been a “tanker” because the very thought of throwing games in order to stack the odds in your favour is the antithesis of a winner’s mindset. The difference here is subtle, yet very real. Phaneuf, in Babcock’s words, is ready to win now, and Toronto simply isn’t. For the same reason that Phil Kessel had to go, Phaneuf had to be dealt: To free up cap space and engineer a core around a group of guys that will be able to stay together and learn the lessons that could some day make them champions. That core is yet to be determined, but everyone, especially Phaneuf, knew that he wasn’t meant to be part of it.
The Leafs almost magically made that albatross contract of Phaneufs’ disappear without retaining a shekel of his salary. Considering what they had to do to make Kessel go away, it is nothing short of a hockey miracle that Lou Lamoriello was able to find a suitor willing to absorb the high dollar hit for a player that is best suited in a complimentary, second-paring role. Phaneuf earns more per year than Senators captain and Norris trophy winner Erik Karlsson. Let that sink in.
The Leafs will have to pay Milan Michalek, Colin Greening and Jared Cowen this year as well as next, but Cowen’s rights come with an interesting wrinkle. As explained by TSN columnist Frank Seravalli, any team facing an overage penalty next season would benefit from acquiring Cowen’s contract, thus freeing up $650,000 to use towards managing that overage. As Seravalli reports, there are ten such teams who could not only make use of Cowen as a depth piece in the playoffs, but then avail themselves of that $650,000 in cap relief by buying him out of his deal in June. The Leafs could dangle that proposition in front of any one of those ten teams and likely garner significant interest, and chances are those conversation will commence soon, if they haven’t already. Doing so would mean that the Leafs are really just contending with Michalek’s $4 million a year pricetag, as Greening will report directly to the minors.
Essentially, the Leafs have engineered for themselves what appears to be a very favourable situation in which the acquisition of a high-ticket free agent becomes feasible, especially one who is accustomed to wearing a letter on his jersey.
Of course I am referring to Steven Stamkos, currently of the Tampa Bay Lightning, who could walk for free, leaving Lightning GM Steve Yzerman with jack squat in return about three weeks from now.
Imagine the Leafs pitch, which might go something like this:
Newport Sports: “So, what is the game plan, and what are the advantages of my client signing in Toronto?”
Lamoriello: Steven would be considered the face of the franchise for the rest of his NHL career. He’ll be a leader, he’ll be our captain, and he will be coached by arguably the best coach of his era. He will be surrounded by a lot of great young talent, including Morgan Rielly, Jake Gardiner, Nazem Kadri, James van Riemsdyk, William Nylander, Mitch Marner, whomever we draft in June, and a number of other highly skilled prospects doing good things across various leagues in North America and Europe. We are developing layers of depth through the draft and also by trading, and we are committed to emerging as a legitimate contender during coach Babcock’s tenure with our organization…and finally, we are prepared to make a very lucrative offer to show how important we believe Steven is to our future.”
Nobody is calling this a done deal, not by a long shot, but everyone realizes the implications of the Leafs making room on the books for a player like Stamkos, who will of course be intrigued by the opportunity to be a key piece of the team that re-establishes the legitimacy of the Maple Leafs after so many decades of downright mediocrity and empty promises from both ownership and management.
Losing Phaneuf equates to both immediate, and long-term gain as it makes a shot at the top pick in the entry draft more likely, and it frees up a ton of cap going forward, which Lamoriello will put to good use when the time is right.
And the time was never more right to part ways with what might be the final critical piece of unfortunate recent history before we can declare this work in progress a total rebuild.
So, what can we expect from the team over the next couple months? Probably an honest effort, night in and night out, with more losses than wins, along with a number of placeholders on expiring deals – players like P.A. Parenteau, Roman Polak, and Michael Grabner – to fetch draft picks from teams loading up for the playoffs. Maybe we’ll get a look at Nylander for a few games, and it wouldn’t surprise to see the likes of Zach Hyman, Connor Brown and Scott Harrington stop in for a cup of coffee as well, before returning to the AHL in time for a Calder Cup championship run.
All in all, Leaf fans should be lauding Lamoriello and co.’s handiwork as a landslide victory for the future, both immediate, and long-term.
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