Pavel Hossyukstrom 2 Report post Posted February 1, 2010 Looks like there are a lot of crazy people on LGW these days. For starters, pretty much everybody poo-pooing Phaneuf falls into the loony bin category. What's wrong with Phaneuf? Size check physicality check offense check defense ? meh, don't watch him enough to know just how good or bad he is but i've not heard anyone compare him to Mike Green defensively so.......and he's typically a plus player. The kid averages over 50 points a year. Do people realize how few dmen put up 50 points in a season? Last year 13 2008 11 2007 16 2006 13 For a dman, you put up 50 or more points. You have had one heck of a good season offensively. 15+ goals 3 times in 4 years and on his way to another 15+ this season. If the Wings got Phaneuf, we'd all be s***ting our pants with glee. Of the top dmen in the league age 25 or under, Phaneuf is right there near the top. I'm sure the Leafs will still suck. But it won't be b/c of Phaneuf. He'll be there best player most likely. One thing is for sure, Boston/Toronto games ought to be even more exciting now. exactly. Ericsson right now holds Phaneuf's jockstrap! I thought that's what he was suppose to turn into for us. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RedWings Gone Wild 6 Report post Posted February 1, 2010 exactly. Ericsson right now holds Phaneuf's jockstrap! I thought that's what he was suppose to turn into for us. You actually decided to compare the expectations from a guy drafted dead last in the draft to a Norris-trophy nominated guy drafted 9th overall? What a staggeringly stupid decision. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RedWings Gone Wild 6 Report post Posted February 1, 2010 This. Phaneuf is still a few years away from hitting his peak; so far he's been pretty darn good (although he needs to smarten-up in his own end a bit), and has all the tools to be a top Dman for years to come. With the Flames signing Bouwmeester this past summer pretty much made Phaneuf expendable - yet not worthless as some here would like to think. Again, some LGW posters thinking Ericsson is a future Norris candidate doesn't make it so. Who, with any authority or background in the sport has predicted Ericsson to be at that level? Is he getting paid to be there, or the minutes to be there, or the top-line pairing to be there, or the PP time to be there? Because Phaneuf is getting all of those, and failing with it.... Ericsson has a cap hit of 900,000, and was (I'll repeat myself again) drafted DEAD LAST in the draft. Nobody was projecting him to be ANYTHING, he has already exceeded expectations.. Phaneuf has a cap hit of 6.5 Million. To put it into perspective, we could clone Ericsson 7 times and still not exceed that overpayment... This comparison doesn't make sense, both for Wings fans projecting Ericsson to reach Norris levels, and for Phaneuf defenders to use the comparison as justification for Phaneuf's weak play. Consider that Phaneuf barely makes less than Lidstrom, has yet to win anything (or even show up enough to give his team a chance to win anything), he has regressed each of the last two seasons, has shown no leadership potential... he makes Lebda look smart with the puck... and he's about as cheap and scummy as Pronger... Not to mention, he's about to go play in the hockey hell of Toronto where psychologically weak kids like him frequently derail their careers (thanks in no small part to the Toronto media). I just don't see this ending well. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mjlegend 155 Report post Posted February 1, 2010 Ask Flames fans what they think of Phaneuf's play in the last couple of years. A few of the ones I know are breathing a sigh of relief. And Giguere lost his starting job a year ago. I'm still questioning how a team in Toronto that's esentially now building for 2011-12 can think they've gotten better by adding a markedly inconsistent goalie with a $6 million cap hit and a moody blueliner who plays when he feels like it, all while giving up four of their top eight scorers. Is John Mitchell centering their first line or is it Jay Rosehill? They don't have a first round pick and next years UFA crop looks like a scrapheap. Unless they can find good compensation for Kaberle, there's still at least another year of 29th/30th overall until they con even hope to contend. There really doesn't seem to be a blueprint here. Do Burke's quotes sound like a man who knows what he's doing? http://www.thestar.com/sports/hockey/nhl/m...-to-maple-leafs “We are in buying and selling mode,†said Burke. “Our goal at the start of the season is to make the playoffs. I know people are going to think there's an issue here as far as my sanity. It's still our goal. “We have some guys who are in rental modes as far as our contracts. We're listening on those guys. We're looking to add as well. “I think this deal takes some offence out of our lineup. That's the next question, who replaces that offence?†Burke didn't have an answer for his own question. In sending Jason Blake (10 goals, 16 assists) to Anaheim with Vesa Toskala, and Matt Stajan (16 goals, 25 assists), Ian White (9 goals, 17 assists) , Jamal Mayers (two goals, six assists) and Niklas Hagman (20 goals, 13 assists) to Calgary, Burke gutted nearly 40 per cent of his offence. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Yzerman191 37 Report post Posted February 1, 2010 Burke seems to be building Toronto from the back end. Kaberle, Phaneuf, Schenn, and Beauchemin make up a pretty decent top four. Burke also acquired a goaltender capable of mentoring Gustavsson, but did so whilst shedding a terrible long term contract for a bad short term contract. It does make you wonder what Burke is going to do about his lack of offense. My guess is he's not done dealing this season and he'll be a major player in the off-season. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest zackmorris Report post Posted February 2, 2010 (edited) Looks like there are a lot of crazy people on LGW these days. For starters, pretty much everybody poo-pooing Phaneuf falls into the loony bin category. What's wrong with Phaneuf? Size check physicality check offense check defense ? meh, don't watch him enough to know just how good or bad he is but i've not heard anyone compare him to Mike Green defensively so.......and he's typically a plus player. The guy saying we're loony doesn't watch a defenseman enough to know if he can play defense? Uhhh....ok. Your basis for Phaneuf not being as good as we say is because he scores points. Well yay, he scores points-so does Mike Green and he looks about as comfortable in his own end as an epileptic watching Japanese cartoons. The issue with him is he's too much of an offensive player and his defense is blah. Calgary obviously saw enough to ship him out, probably the same thing some people have seen for quite awhile now. His positioning is the s***s, he's got a terrible attitude and more and more everyday I believe yes, he is uncoachable. He also has horrible instincts. He will constantly pinch when he shouldn't, he'll miss a critical keep-in leading to an odd man rush the other way, he'll go for big hits like he's addicted which again lead to odd man rushes. He takes stupid penalties, is prone to cheap shots and it can be argued he plays worse in big games but that's debatable. The newer hockey generation is wowed by the flash and shininess of offensive defensemen, but being almost useless in your own end will kill you everytime. Just look at, in the big picture, how long it took them to ship Phaneuf once they had a real defenseman on the roster. Bryan McCabe scored 50-60 points and was shipped. From TO no less. 50 points doesn't give you a pass to never play defense. McCabe is also a plus player. Figure that. If the Wings got Phaneuf, we'd all be s***ting our pants with glee. Not anyone familiar with him. We'd be bitching about his positioning more than anyone on the roster yet. At the end of the day... -The Flames got depth which they'll probably find a way to screw up. They will score a tad more, still be clueless defensively and won't ever be a truly complete team until they stop trying to build completely within FA and trades. -The Leafs will continue to suck, as Kessel isn't worth what they gave up for him and can't lead a team on his own, the supporting cast sucks and Phaneuf's new environment has worse coaching, goaltending and forwards. Giguere sucks and the whole team won't do s*** until they can draft better and become a complete team. Phaneuf becomes their problem now. -The Ducks got rid of an overpaid goaltender who sucked instead of losing him on the open market. All it took was taking on Blake's contract for a little while, who isn't too bad a guy to have while rebuilding anyway. I'd say the Ducks made out the best here. They at least seem to know they're hitting bottom anyday and need to rebuild. They also seem to draft well, and if I could complain about one thing, I'd say they should've tried to scrape more picks from someone but whatever. Edited February 2, 2010 by zackmorris Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
