Love him or hate him, any player that appears in over 1,000 NHL games (1,048) deserves some respect. Lovers of revisionist history would not need to be overly imaginative to construct a vastly different landscape based on such factors. If the Senators remain a contender during the 2017-18 season, how many scandals simply don’t happen? Does, for example, the alleged situation involving Mike Hoffman’s partner blow up like it did?Īlready the list of teams affected includes the Senators, Stars (Methot), Nashville Predators (Turris), Avalanche (Duchene), Golden Knights (Phaneuf and Stone), Florida Panthers (Hoffman), San Jose Sharks (Karlsson), and Kings (Phaneuf). They say winning covers over a lot of issues. With key members of the core signed, does Mark Stone sign for a reasonable cap hit? When the Kings trade for a veteran defenceman heading into the playoffs, who do they acquire instead of Phaneuf? With the cap space available, do they make Kyle Turris a fair offer, re-signing him and avoiding the disastrous trade for fellow center Matt Duchene? Does Erik feel more inclined to re-sign because his friend and defense partner Marc Methot is still on the team? Whether a mid-round pick or middling prospect is included to incentivize the deal is irrelevant for our purposes.įirst, let us consider the Senators. We will assume that Vegas selects Phaneuf in the expansion draft.
Let’s take a little trip down the rabbit hole to see how many teams could have been impacted by Phaneuf’s decision. Related Story:Ranking Each Team's Expansion Draft Decision Consequences Can you really blame him for not agreeing to waive his NMC? Now he’s being asked to go to a team that is not expected to contend for years. Finally, he gets traded to a contending team that makes the Conference Finals, is one goal away from making it to the Stanley Cup Final, only to lose to the eventual champions. In some of his post-game press conferences with the Leafs you can almost hear the internal screams of “HELP, GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!”. Phaneuf shoulders the blame for some monumental collapses. He goes through years of not making the playoffs on some terrible Leafs’ teams. Here’s a player who has suffered a lot in his career. It’s believed the three defencemen the Senators want to protect are Cody Ceci, Marc Methot and some guy named Erik Karlsson. “I still think he’s a big part of this team and the fact he wants to be here tells me a lot about him,” he said. It was explained very well to him our request and why we were making this request.”ĭorion added that his respect for Dion had not changed. He’s been around the league many years,” Dorion told reporters. Senators General Manager Pierre Dorion asked Phaneuf to waive his NMC but was rejected. Phaneuf’s contract included a no-movement clause (NMC), meaning if he did not choose to waive this clause, Ottawa would need to protect him in the expansion draft and expose another player on their roster. However, he held the power in this situation. With an eye on players on the roster who would need new contracts, the Senators hoped Phaneuf and his huge contract would be acquired by Vegas. The playoff drought would continue for another three years, including an epic collapse at the end of the 2012 season that gave us this quote from Burke. Later that year, Burke would announce that the 25-year-old Phaneuf would be the next captain of the Maple Leafs. The Leafs were a rebuilding team with an impatient general manager in Brian Burke. In 2010, for the first time in his NHL career, Phaneuf and his team would miss the playoffs. I talked to them this morning and I’m very excited to be a Toronto Maple Leaf and getting there.” Toronto Maple Leafs “I was very surprised but on the other hand, I’m very excited to be going to the biggest hockey market in the world. “I know that’s a cliche … If Wayne Gretzky can get traded, anyone can get traded,” he said. Then, on Sunday, January 31, 2010, the Toronto Maple Leafs acquired Phaneuf from the Flames as part of a seven-player trade.
The Flames would make the playoffs four years in a row with Phaneuf on the roster. He recorded 20 goals in his rookie campaign, and a 60-point season two years later. Though he’s still looking for a new team after being bought out, let’s have a brief look at Phaneuf’s career leading up to the decisive moment in question.