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It’s the end of an era in Toronto today with the Toronto Maple Leafs trading their captain Dion Phaneuf to the Ottawa Senators. After a massive overhaul in management, a new coach with Mike Babcock and even a new logo starting next season, the last piece to go was the captain.
Phaneuf was the centerpiece in a nine-player trade between the Leafs and the Senators. Heading to Ottawa is Phaneuf, Matt Frattin, Casey Bailey, Ryan Rupert and Cody Donaghey. Going to Toronto is Jared Cowen, Colin Greening, Milan Michalek, Tobias Lindberg and a 2017 second-round draft pick, while Toronto didn’t retain any of Phaneuf’s salary. In 51 NHL games this season, Phaneuf has three goals and 24 points.
This is a major trade for Toronto signifying that changes are coming to the Maple Leafs. First, it opens up salary options for Toronto since they won’t have Phaneuf’s massive six-year, $7 million annual contract going against the salary cap any longer. Instead, they take back Cowen and Michalek, both of whom only have one year on their contracts after this season, and together their cap hit is $7 million. Unless both of those players miraculously turn their careers around, they won’t be with the Maple Leafs after their contracts end. This allows Toronto to essentially get Phaneuf’s contract off their books in two years instead of six.
The other players going to Ottawa with Phaneuf are just in the deal to make it work with the amount of players under contract and the overall salary cap. Greening is just a salary dump for Ottawa since he is currently buried in the minors, so the two main pieces Toronto got in the trade are Lindberg and the 2017 second-round pick.
Lindberg currently has 22 points in 34 games for Ottawa’s weak AHL team, and he is expected to improve since he will be playing with the incredibly talented Toronto Marlies.
This move immediately helps Ottawa by bringing in a top defenseman who can play big minutes and on the power play. Ottawa also gets to be rid of Michalek, Cowen and Greening, all of whom have been disappointing this season. For Toronto, they get three players who can fill roster spots when other players are traded, and Lindberg and the 2017 second-round pick help to build for the future.
This was the best deal Toronto could’ve pulled off with Phaneuf considering the size of his contract and that he has a no-trade clause. This meant that Phaneuf gives Toronto management a list of 10 teams he would accept being traded to at the beginning of the season. Toronto is then only allowed to trade Phaneuf to one of those 10 teams. Most of those teams either didn’t want Phaneuf or couldn’t afford to take on his salary, which greatly restricts the trade options.
With Phaneuf now gone it means that other Maple Leafs will soon be traded as well. This was the biggest part of the rebuild since Phaneuf represented the Maple Leafs on and off the ice. With the captain gone, it means that Toronto’s culture will begin to change to reflect management and their vision for the future of the Maple Leafs.
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