The Toronto Maple Leafs are perhaps the NHL’s most confusing and frustrating of teams. The historic franchise can’t seem to pull it together in regards to improving their team on either side of the puck, and much to the chagrin of their playoff starved fan base, they have yet to make any sort of relevant addition to their lineup leading up to the 2014-15 NHL regular season. In tough times such as these a team has no choice but to rely on their leader, their captain, to figure out a way to show them to the promised land that is the Stanley Cup playoffs. However, after another sub-par season by Dion Phaneuf, it looks as though the rumor mill has once again surrounded itself around the native of Edmonton, Alberta. Will Phaneuf be dawning the blue and white come the beginning of October? Whether hardcore fans of the Buds like it or not, Phaneuf’s future as a member of the Maple Leafs is more cut and dry than you may think.
It came as a shock to many that Dave Nonis and the frustrating Maple Leafs front office felt the need to ink Phaneuf to a seven-year $49 million contract extension on the eve of this past season’s Winter Classic. With all of the hype surrounding the big game at the Big House in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Maple Leafs faithful didn’t necessarily have time to really figure out what their team had gotten themselves into. After all, Phaneuf’s numbers as a Leaf have never really been that impressive and certainly not good enough to attract other teams towards him if they did so choose to put him on the trading block.
Because of Phaneuf’s inability to better a defense that seems to struggle season after season despite their great talent, nobody in their right mind should trade for Phaneuf. In his 5-year career as a Leaf, Phaneuf is a dismal -15 and has only managed to rack up a total of 143 points for the blue and white. These clearly are not the numbers that a team who has only managed to make the playoffs twice over the past ten seasons can rely on. For this reason and the fact that no GM in the NHL will take on the money that Phaneuf is owed, expect the Leaf captain to most definitely be playing for Toronto in 2014-15.
In retrospect, the Leafs front office probably should look to trade Phaneuf to another team to try and bolster their overall stale lineup. However, given his sub-par past along with the relatively high contract extension that he agreed to last season, Brendan Shanahan and Nonis will find it very difficult to move the defenseman. Whether fans of the Buds like it or not, Phaneuf will be their man for now, and for perhaps the duration of his career. Consider them to be stuck in the mud with this one, with the chance of things to get a lot messier.