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This guy looks slow and out of shape. He shows no signs of being anything remotely close to a dominant or even a steady defenceman. He is slow to react, slow to move, doesn't seem to have that great a shot and constantly rushes and gets caught out of position.

Any excuse other than he's out of shape and the Leafs got a real dud. Hagman alone is worth more.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sample_size

if you didn't notice, out of the 5 games phaneuf has played, the leafs have won two of them and lost two games by one goal a piece. against top teams too. for a team this lousy, that's encouraging at the very least. granted i didn't witness last night's debacle.

While it is a statistically small sample size, my opinion comes from observing him, not from analyzing the stats. He just doesn't look that good. So far.

Well, its good we didn't give up any young assets for him but I still thought we gave up a lot of offense to get this guy.

The worst part is his contract. Good job Brian Burke.

Are we all watching the same player? Phanuef has been solid thus far. He's also accelerated and improved Schenn's play since his arrival.

Crowned wrote:Are we all watching the same player? Phanuef has been solid thus far. He's also accelerated and improved Schenn's play since his arrival.

This. We got one of the best young defensemen in the league and gave up some mediocre players.

J Dilla you said you don't like hockey, no idea why you are commenting on the Leafs.

I've always felt that he's ridiculously overrated. Schenn's play has picked up considerably since Dion landed in TO, but for a contract that big, I think Burke could've went after someone cheaper if they just needed a big shot to make Luke feel more comfortable.

All in all, I still say Toronto has the most overpaid/overrated defense in the NHL. And it's just going to get worse when they let go of Kaberle - who I think is the only real solid defenseman on the team.

Ok you don't like Dion hell we will send you Ralfalski for him in a nano second and our first round pick. It's a win-win for you guys, you get a pick and a steady defensemen

raps4life~ wrote:

Crowned wrote:Are we all watching the same player? Phanuef has been solid thus far. He's also accelerated and improved Schenn's play since his arrival.

This. We got one of the best young defensemen in the league and gave up some mediocre players.

J Dilla you said you don't like hockey, no idea why you are commenting on the Leafs.

Dude, I'm in Canada. With my long drives to school I'm basically forced to listen to hockey. If I listen to the fan for at least 3 hours a day, they probably give you 15 minutes of basketball talk.

And plus, I've been to about 20-21 Leaf games this season, going to a few more in the coming weeks. I didn't say I didn't like hockey, I just don't like how Canadians are not over this sport yet, specially in the media. It's like Americans and their football, all they talk about is football on American radio. And I seriously hate football as a sport. I'd watch hockey over football any day of the week.

What the hell is this stuff? Dion has proven he was the best player in the trade and has been great in Toronto. He's not scoring, but his defensive game has been by far the best out of any leafs defenceman and it's no surprise the defense became drastically better once Dion arrived. Calgary got hosed bad, Matt Stajan is already been called out for inconsistency. Ian White has been mediocre and Nic Hagman has been terrible for them. Toronto won this trade so far and will win considerably down the road.

Southward1 wrote:What the hell is this stuff? Dion has proven he was the best player in the trade and has been great in Toronto. He's not scoring, but his defensive game has been by far the best out of any leafs defenceman and it's no surprise the defense became drastically better once Dion arrived. Calgary got hosed bad, Matt Stajan is already been called out for inconsistency. Ian White has been mediocre and Nic Hagman has been terrible for them. Toronto won this trade so far and will win considerably down the road.

No way the Leafs won this trade when they had to take on Dion's salary

Phaneuf has been solid but not spectacular so far, and I think that Burke and the Leafs acquired him to be spectacular. That said, the deal wasn't just for Phaneuf - Aulie was also an important piece for the Leafs and it will take a few years before we know how that turns out. Heck, it will take a while before we really know how things turn out with Phaneuf.

But as far as what the Leafs gave up - it was clear Stajan was gone, White was probably going to get a bigger contract than he deserved, and Hagman is an older player with another year left. I think the gamble was worth it and I'm satisfied so far. But I really hope Phaneuf can pick up his offence. Funny enough, suddenly Schenn is piling on the points since Phaneuf got here.

sh00n wrote:I've always felt that he's ridiculously overrated. Schenn's play has picked up considerably since Dion landed in TO, but for a contract that big, I think Burke could've went after someone cheaper if they just needed a big shot to make Luke feel more comfortable.

All in all, I still say Toronto has the most overpaid/overrated defense in the NHL. And it's just going to get worse when they let go of Kaberle - who I think is the only real solid defenseman on the team.

Pure Habs fan right here, love it. I could guarantee you if I asked you before the deal about Phaneuf, you'd say he was a franchise defenseman.

The Leafs defense is expensive, no doubt about that. But the potential to be one of the elite defenses in the league is definitely there. What aspects of the Leafs defense are even overrated? Phaneuf? And how are we overrated if our defense has been pretty much taken advantage of all season? We firmly believe with the improvement we've seen since the Phaneuf trade that our defense is better and with the addition of a pretty solid shutdown guy in Komisarek can only get better. We're not saying we have the best defense corps in the league, but you've got to admit that based on the talent there, it should definitely be a strong point of this team.

And who knows if we're dealing Kaberle? He's obviously major bait for a forward if we choose to move him, but Burke has seemed to become more open to extending the guy. This defense can definitely stand up against some of the best:

Kaberle - Schenn
Phaneuf - Beauchemin
Komisarek - Gunnarsson

Anyways to the OP, I don't know if you've watched the Leafs little run here but Phaneuf has been a huge part of it (obviously the original post is a little outdated). Physically intimidating, a huge presence on the point (although he's had trouble scoring obviously), and a great positional defenseman who has helped to dramatically improve our PK. Phaneuf wasn't brought here to help Luke Schenn's development, that's just unreasonable. If that's a bi-product of Phaneuf being on the squad, fantastic. Since Dion Phaneuf's arrival in Toronto the Leafs have allowed just 2.6 goals a game (he's played 15 games so far). The team has also won 8 of those 15 games, a significant improvement. Phaneuf has also brought a lot of leadership with him and it wouldn't surprise me if he was in the running for the C next season.

Leafs are now 10-7-1 with Phaneuf in the lineup and the defensive upgrade is easily noticeable, but here's something interesting:

Luke Schenn - 2 goals, 5 assists
Dion Phaneuf - 6 assists
Tomas Kaberle - 1 goal, 3 assists

Kaberle's lack of production since the trade is astounding. Much of it can be attributed to the loss of finishing up front and the emergence of another player logging huge minutes on the back-end in Phaneuf, but 4 points in 18 games? And Luke Schenn's got 7 points in those 18 games, a huge improvement on a guy who really has been pretty non-existent in terms of offense the last two seasons.

Shout-out to Jonas Gustavsson as well who has gone 6-0-0 in his last 6 starts posting a GAA of 2.00 and a .927 sv%. Too bad we couldn't play like this when it mattered, but here's to hoping we continue to pull ourselves out of last in the conference.

^^^i find it weird, but since the team is so young i actually have been paying more attention to the team even though they really cant play for anything

I think Phaneuf has played solid so far, not great.. but solid.

However, at his cap figure he does need to produce a bit more offensively. I love Kaberle and all, and he's a great offensive defenseman, but he needs to shoot more on the PP. Our powerplay has sucked major balls lately even with Phaneuf but all the other teams are taking his shooting lane away. If Kaberle was more of a threat to shoot then that would provide Phaneuf for more time to get the puck in a shooting lane.

I for one am excited about this team. The youth has really brought energy and hopefully it caries over to next season!

bryant08 wrote:Pure Habs fan right here, love it. I could guarantee you if I asked you before the deal about Phaneuf, you'd say he was a franchise defenseman.

Wish I had seen this before. No, I would have never said Phaneuf is a franchise defenseman. The dude doesn't even play defense, so why would I crown him with a title like that? A franchise defenseman is well-rounded with one part of their game that stands out above the rest. Habs fan or not, Andrei Markov is a franchise defenseman, though he can be lazy like all Russians. Jay Bouwmeester is a franchise defenseman. Doughty, Green, Chara, Lidstrom, Pronger, Niedermayer.

Hell, even Kaberle. But I don't think he has the proper levels of testosterone, belligerence, truculence and pugnacity for Burkie's liking.

Dion Phaneuf is an overrated, overpaid (and glorified) goon. He has a hard slap shot and can lay out a big hit, but he's lazy, he gets beat regularly on D, and he doesn't have any elite skill that other defenseman don't. If I'm looking for a defenseman who can fire rockets from the point and plays no defense, I'd rather have Marc Andre Bergeron at 750k, please.

And just for the record, on the 09/10 season:
Marc Andre Bergeron: 60 games, 13 goals, 21 assists, 34 points
Dion Phaneuf: 81 games, 12 goals, 20 assists, 32 points

Ron Wilson said today that Phaneuf was likely to be the next captain of the Leafs.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/2010/04/ ... f_captain/

I like Phaneuf. I'm not a big hockey fan but I watched the first game he played for the Leafs and he had a huge impact in the game. Loved how he riled up the crowd in his first few minutes as a Leaf.