Dreger/Mackenzie's tweet:

"Rumblings Phaneuf in play. Nonis says he'll trade almost anyone, says no one called on captain.....yet"/ Hearing same rumours."
- fifty__missions

ya that sounds like he said "we're open to trading just about anyone"

reporter: "are you open to trading Phaneuf?"

Nonis: "we are open to trading anyone if it makes sense."

Reporter twitter: "Leafs considering trading Phaneuf"

What if you do not need 2 top guys and just brought in more defensive minded defenders and distributed the minutes equally between the 1st and 2nd pairing? We still have franson and gardiner as our offensively minded defenders
- Mapleleafs_91

to play with Phaneuf? great.

if trading Phaneuf and only bringing in 1 top guy, not enough. be same as last year but with less offense from the point.

I call shenanigans on that theory, if we brought more defensive minded defenders to the team and distributed the minutes, (this is without phaneuf) i still think the team would do a good job
- Mapleleafs_91

everyone else here disagrees with you.

to play with Phaneuf? great.

if trading Phaneuf and only bringing in 1 top guy, not enough. be same as last year but with less offense from the point.
- Big_Lightnin

Thats okay, as long as the defenders play defense Kessel will bring the offense

everyone else here disagrees with you.
- Big_Lightnin

you can disagree but one defender does not make or break the team out of the 6

What if you do not need 2 top guys and just brought in more defensive minded defenders and distributed the minutes equally between the 1st and 2nd pairing? We still have franson and gardiner as our offensively minded defenders
- Mapleleafs_91

Yup, a platoon style. I'm fine with this. Phaneuf just lost a lot of his defensive prowess with the rule changes and lack of clutch and grab. He is really good on offense, so keeping him at 4 or 5 would be good. But guys who get big money, do everything well. He cannot be paid in the top 5-10 d men in the League. It would be sweet if he would take less but it's unlikely.

to play with Phaneuf? great.

if trading Phaneuf and only bringing in 1 top guy, not enough. be same as last year but with less offense from the point.
- Big_Lightnin

I agree. With Phaneuf gone and no D coming back for him, our D and the season(s) to come would be (frank)ed. Plain and simple.

you can disagree but one defender does not make or break the team out of the 6
- Mapleleafs_91

he played HALF of every game. HALF!!!

how is this hard to understand.

1 player makes the defense when he's the BEST Defenseman playing HALF the games.

you can disagree but one defender does not make or break the team out of the 6
- Mapleleafs_91

This is false.

to play with Phaneuf? great.

if trading Phaneuf and only bringing in 1 top guy, not enough. be same as last year but with less offense from the point.
- Big_Lightnin

Hmmm, the Leafs do possess a tun of offesnsive guys in the system. Plus,scoring won't be a problem for this team. If he takes 4-5 i'de love to keep him, but not as a top paid guy.

Yup, a platoon style. I'm fine with this. Phaneuf just lost a lot of his defensive prowess with the rule changes and lack of clutch and grab. He is really good on offense, so keeping him at 4 or 5 would be good. But guys who get big money, do everything well. He cannot be paid in the top 5-10 d men in the League. It would be sweet if he would take less but it's unlikely.
- aminnes

They make it seem like having more defensive minded defenders is a bad thing. Implying they can't make a pass... or something to start up a play, they are in the NHL aren't they not? Bro we need someone to set up the play pretty sure we have gardiner and franson which is more than enough on the powerplay or when they are on to do that

Yup, a platoon style. I'm fine with this. Phaneuf just lost a lot of his defensive prowess with the rule changes and lack of clutch and grab. He is really good on offense, so keeping him at 4 or 5 would be good. But guys who get big money, do everything well. He cannot be paid in the top 5-10 d men in the League. It would be sweet if he would take less but it's unlikely.
- aminnes

he's better defensively now than he was at any point prior to the rule changes... by a vast vast margin.

he was 3rd pairing PK in Calgary most of his career

If we trade Phaneuf we will be throwing our shiny new goalie to the wolves. Everyone loves to rip on him for his mistakes, but no one gives him credit for what he's good at. He keeps big power guys like Malkin, Ovi, Kovalchuk, etc. in check and always has. But he makes a bad pinch or gets burned by a speedy, smaller player and that's all people notice.
- BetterCallSaul

Ovi since 09=15 games 26 points
Malking since 09= 9 games 12 points
Kovalchul since 09= 13 games 13 points

he played HALF of every game. HALF!!!

how is this hard to understand.

1 player makes the defense when he's the BEST Defenseman playing HALF the games.
- Big_Lightnin

yet was arguably the most noticeable and caused the most mistakes seen by leaf fans when games were on the line and ALOT, AND I MEAN ALOT in the last dieing minutes in 3rd period, which decided the game or screwed up in the end when we were about to win. So this half game huge chunk of minutes is irrelevant if he cant handle them to begin with

he's better defensively now than he was at any point prior to the rule changes... by a vast vast margin.

he was 3rd pairing PK in Calgary most of his career
- Big_Lightnin

His improvement in his end as a LEaf has directly parralelled the improvement of the goaltending.

Guys, Calm Down, Kaberle and Whitney are available.....It's all good.

Guys, Calm Down, Kaberle and Whitney are available.....It's all good.
- Byfuglien Ate Me

just bring BIG BYUF to toronto

he's better defensively now than he was at any point prior to the rule changes... by a vast vast margin.

he was 3rd pairing PK in Calgary most of his career
- Big_Lightnin

Also keep in mind, the PK was crap until a better coach as well as guys like McClement coming on board. Dion was here the whole time it sucked, just saying. I don't want to undervalue the guy but I don't want to overvalue him either.

Ovi since 09=15 games 26 points
Malking since 09= 9 games 12 points
Kovalchul since 09= 13 games 13 points
- Leafland

They look in check to me

There is a chart out there that shows various defenseman and how many defensive starts they had coupled with the quality of their opponents.

Phaneuf ranked among the top in defensive zone starts and at the very top in quality of opponents. At 25 minutes per night.

Take that out and you,re going to watch Franson wither like a flower on a hot day. The spotlight will eat these guys up. Beauchemin couldn't handle it and he finished 4th in Norris voting once he left this zoo.
- Leeman4Gilmour

I forgot to say before...

All of THIS^^

just bring BIG BYUF to toronto
- Mapleleafs_91

(frank) yeah! Someone buy this guy a drink!

They make it seem like having more defensive minded defenders is a bad thing. Implying they can't make a pass... or something to start up a play, they are in the NHL aren't they not? Bro we need someone to set up the play pretty sure we have gardiner and franson which is more than enough on the powerplay or when they are on to do that
- Mapleleafs_91

If thereason to keep him is the offence, there's lots to go around, if its his d, then he aint worth the money, it's a tough spot. If they moved him and say Nick Shultz was part of the deal, and then they went after another real solid homer like scuderi (type) then I'm cool with it.

They look in check to me
- robin_steele264

I wouldnt say that. This team gets eaten alive by top guys. I don't even want to look at Crosby's.

Also keep in mind, the PK was crap until a better coach as well as guys like McClement coming on board. Dion was here the whole time it sucked, just saying. I don't want to undervalue the guy but I don't want to overvalue him either.
- aminnes

and I'm not calling him god of defence. Far from it.

But he's WAY better than anybody else on the team. That's all I'm saying.

He plays so many minutes in ALL situations because Carlyle simply doesn't trust anybody else. And I'm pretty sure he's a better judge than any of us.

I forgot to say before...

All of THIS^^
- Big_Lightnin

Like i like phaneuf, does a good job, only thing is that if he is gone, i don't think this completely destroys our defense if he is replaced with more defensively minded defenders. Either way he gets too much minutes which he can't handle which is evident.. so he can be the best ranked, either way, we see his mistakes which are costly on the ice which is not all his fault but is also a coaching standard of how he distributes his minutes to his defenders