By Alex Hobson
Brian Burke's tenure as Leafs GM featured many moves that would turn out to be a mess that the Leafs needed to clean up in order to rebuild properly. One of these moves was a 2010 move that saw Niklas Hagman, Ian White, Jamal Mayers, and Matt Stajan go to the Calgary Flames in exchange for Dion Phaneuf. From the moment Phaneuf arrived in Toronto, he would be given the captaincy, immediately put on the top pairing, and in general he would be faced with much more pressure than he was used to in Calgary. Unfortunately, this would mean that Phaneuf would be faced with the hatred and disappointment from Leafs fans. Many would call for him to be traded, but Phaneuf can still offer something to the team. Let's find out how.
Here's an interesting fact. Did you know that at the trade deadline, Phaneuf was almost dealt to the Detroit Red Wings in exchange for Brendan Smith, Teemu Pulkkinen, and Stephen Weiss? Unfortunately, the deal fell through when the Leafs backed out because they didn't want the contract of Weiss. Eventually, the Leafs went on to hire then Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock, and the Phaneuf rumours suddenly stopped. See a coincidence here? Babcock was the reason all along why the Wings were pushing so hard for Phaneuf, but now it looks like Phaneuf will be staying in Toronto for at least the next year. Babcock wants a chance to coach him and get his game back up to where it used to be. Phaneuf used to be a hard hitting, frequent shooting defenseman that teams hated to play against, but his game seemed to trail off over the years. If Phaneuf can get his game up, then it's likely that more teams will be interested come the deadline.
STATUS: ON THE BLOCK
While I say Phaneuf is on the block, he's not really being rushed out of town. Babcock wants a chance to coach Phaneuf, but the Leafs are still listening to offers from other teams and if an offer comes around that they can't refuse, they will not hesitate to accept it.
2015-16 ROLE: TOP FOUR DEFENSEMAN
It's likely that we see Phaneuf on the top pairing, but there's also a chance that they demote him to the second pairing to take a little bit of pressure off his back. The problem with this is that there aren't many players that would be able to replace him up there, but anything can happen.
What do you think of Phaneuf, Leafs fans? Weigh in below.
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