Dion Phaneuf has been suspended for two games for his hit on Boston's Kevan Miller in the third period of a 5-2 loss to the Bruins Sunday night. The suspension is the first of Phaneuf’s career. The Leafs defenseman was not penalized on the hit from behind, but was notified shortly after the game that he would have a phone hearing with NHL Director of Player Safety Brendan Shanahan Tuesday morning.
Toronto’s lineup has already been stretched thin by injuries to Tyler Bozak, Dave Bolland and Joffrey Lupul and now faces the prospect of being without their team captain (who leads all Toronto skaters with over 24 minutes of ice time per game) for contests against Western Conference foes Los Angeles and St. Louis later this week.
The short term absence of Phaneuf will necessitate head coach Randy Carlyle to lean more on the remaining blueline corps of Jake Gardiner, Cody Franson, Paul Ranger, Carl Gunnarsson, John-Michael Liles, Mark Fraser and rookie Morgan Rielly, who for most of the club’s 31 games have been inconsistent or generally unreliable. Some believe that this suspension will provide Leafs GM Dave Nonis a sneak preview of what things will be like if he is not able to sign the 28-year-old blueliner to a new contract before next summer, when he becomes an unrestricted free agent.
While Toronto may struggle without Phaneuf, the premise that his unavailability bolsters the case for making him one of the NHL’s highest paid defenseman is fatuous. It can rightly be said that the Leafs have one of the more porous defensive corps in the NHL with Phaneuf as their leader and top earner($6.5 Million), so if they lock him up for a long term deal at $7 Million+ per season and keep things as is, what will change?
There is no doubt that Phaneuf is a quality NHL defenseman, with the capability of being effective at both ends of the ice, but the point is arguable whether his re-signing at a salary comparable to franchise defensemen like Shea Weber or Ryan Suter is the right thing to do. At 28, Phaneuf is in the prime of his career, but signing him to a seven or eight year deal will take him into his declining years, when his cap hit will be so onerous that it makes David Clarkson’s contract look reasonable.
Revelations coming out of the NHL Board of Governors meetings in Pebble Beach, CA on Monday indicated that the salary cap will increase from $64.3 Million to over $71 Million next season, which not only will give clubs willing to spend money like Philadelphia, Toronto, New York and Boston another $7 Million to play around with, it will force teams wallowing at the bottom of the salary scale like the NY Islanders, Colorado or Edmonton to spend to reach the cap floor. All of those teams are in desperate need of defensive help and would likely break the bank to sign Phaneuf.
If the Leafs decide to move the defenseman before the March 5th trade deadline, they could expect a significant return in players, prospects, and/or draft picks and give the club more salary maneuverability going into next summer, but the 2014 free agent class is not deep, with Andrei Markov, Dan Girardi, Brooks Orpik and Dan Boyle being the top echelon.
There has been little news emanating about the negotiations between the Leafs and Newport Sports, but with the recent signing of Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundquist for seven years at $8.5 Million per season and the speculation that Norris Trophy winner PK Subban wants over $8 Million, you can bet that Phaneuf’s salary demands will go up, not down.
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