Dion Phaneuf is no longer a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs and the club’s fans are largely rejoicing.
Over the last few seasons, the defenseman has become a favoured whipping boy of frustrated followers who saw the highly paid Phaneuf as the embodiment of everything that was wrong with the franchise. The reaction to his departure is basically the same as it was when he arrived from Calgary in a seven-player deal on January 31, 2010, which says more about Toronto and the expectations heap upon Phaneuf’s shoulders than anything else.
After four excellent seasons with the Flames, including back-to-back 17-goal seasons and a runner-up finish in Norris Trophy balloting as a 22-year-old, Phaneuf was the centerpiece of a blockbuster trade and instantly became one of the most scrutinized players in the league. This is what happens when you’re traded to the center of the hockey universe, where your every shift is analyzed and expectations are higher than anywhere else, even though the Leafs have a prolonged history of underachieving over the last couple decades.
Fans saw his numbers from Calgary and the money Phaneuf was being paid and expected a perennial All-Star, failing to recognize that he was surrounded by better talent when he was with the Flames and that logging 20-plus minutes a night game-in and game-out while being the chief physical presence for a team takes it’s toll on a player.
As a captain, they didn’t like that Phaneuf wasn’t fiery and demonstrative. He wasn’t a good locker room guy they said, parroting what they heard from pundits, though no one on the team ever came out and challenged his leadership position. They criticized how much money he makes, balking at the 7-year, $49M extension Phaneuf signed on New Year’s Eve 2013, ignoring the fact that this season, he ranks as the 117th highest-paid defensemen in the league, landing between Jakub Kindl and Nick Shultz.
They act like Phaneuf is the only player in Maple Leafs history to get a massive deal and not play up to the dollar figures they’re drawing, somehow forgetting that Jeff Finger and David Clarkson collected generous sums of money from MLS&E for very little on-ice production before being run out of town.
They act as if Phaneuf is the first player that appeared to be trending towards elite status to plateau and then regress in a new market, but league history is littered with players like that. The way fans speak of the now departed captain, you’d think he didn’t belong in the NHL, when the reality is that Phaneuf remains an outstanding “second pairing” defensemen and should be a perfect compliment to Cody Ceci with the Senators, lining up behind the top pair of reigning Norris Trophy winner Erik Karlsson and Marc Methot.
Leafs fans are a fickle bunch – when they love you, they’ll love you forever and inflate your impact ten-fold, but when they sour on you, look out.
Phaneuf lands in that second grouping and became the guy everyone pointed to as the example of everything that was wrong with the club; an overpaid name brought in by a regime that is no longer in power that needed to be moved. But when Toronto acquired him – along with Keith Aulie and Fredrik Sjostrom in exchange for Matt Stajan, Nik Hagman, Ian White and Jamal Mayers – fans thought they were making off like riverboat bandits, landing a young blueliner in exchange for a bunch of expendable pieces.
The proper rating of Phaneuf resides somewhere in between – a legitimate NHL defensemen who didn’t live up to the lofty expectations placed upon him by an organization in desperate need of a franchise savior and a fan base that has gone without a truly competitive team for too many years.
Best of luck in Ottawa, Dion; you deserved a better send-off than you got.
