Maple Leafs trade Dion Phaneuf to Senators in 9-player deal

“This just happened, but right now, I’d say (he’ll play with Ceci)”, said Senators coach Dave Cameron.

While Ottawa gets the defenseman they have been searching for, the majority of the players acquired in the deal with be impacting the Binghamton Senators.

“We don’t expect him to come in here to be a savior”. We have built what we believe to be a very strong culture, and that goes for everyone.

Craig Anderson, who backed up Phaneuf by stopping Nyquist when he blew past him, made 27 saves for the Senators.

Traded from Toronto in a nine-player blockbuster a day earlier, Phaneuf looked like he was simply taking in his surroundings Wednesday morning as he practised with the third team of his National Hockey League career.

Murray said he had no qualms about dealing with the archrival Maple Leafs. And while Phaneuf was badly miscast for years in Toronto as a No1 defenseman who was expected to play in all situations, maybe he rediscovers some of his best game in a situation where he’s no longer expected to be both a workhorse and the face of the franchise.

20 – The number of goals Phaneuf scored as a rookie in the 2005-06 season. With seven defencemen dressed, Deryk Engelland started the game on right wing before returning to the blue line.

Murray said he hoped the trade would help Ottawa contend for the playoffs not only this spring, but beyond.

The Senators are 25-23-6 and are in sixth place in the Atlantic Division.

Markus Granlund scored short-handed for his first goal in 21 games and added an assist to lead the Calgary Flames to a 4-3 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday. Phaneuf had been Toronto’s captain since the summer of 2010, a period during which the club qualified for the post-season only once while enduring a string of losing, controversy and upheaval.

It continues to be an open question what the future holds for Kadri in Toronto, who will be a restricted free agent in July.

Last year, rumors were swirling of Phaneuf being moved to Detroit.

He’s the second core player with a long-term contract to be unloaded by the Leafs’ relatively new leadership group steered by team president Brendan Shanahan and general manager Lou Lamoriello. Adding draft picks and clearing cap space is all apart of the plan for the Maple Leaf brass. They will retain zero salary in this deal, which is a coup. I had a couple flights to get here yesterday, a lot of time to think.

The Maple Leafs center said he let his emotions get the best of him after being flattened in the Calgary zone. It was the first trade between Ontario rivals in almost 18 years. Chances are still in favor of a Polak or Parenteau move coming next, but as the past few days have shown us that the Toronto Maple Leafs have a management team that is not afraid to burn it all down.

Coach Mike Babcock and Kadri had a private conversation about the latter’s temper fit after Giordano stuck his shoulder into his nose. He told Phaneuf as much when the two spoke by phone after the trade was completed. “Very simple. We should teach kids to hit like this”, Hartley said. “He was just outstanding”. “Anyone would want him in their top four “D” and I just answered accordingly”.

Serious negotiations on the deal began over the weekend, according to the Senators GM.

Size: Excellent. The most exciting part about acquiring Lindberg in this deal is that he is a big winger, and while the Leafs have plenty of highly skilled wingers already, one thing they did not have a lot of within their organization is size, and Lindberg has the size that the Leafs have coveted.