Maple Leafs All-Star Phaneuf joins Senators in nine-player trade

“I thought we played pretty hard”.

The Ottawa Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs have completed a nine-player, and one pick, trade.

The Maple Leafs get defenceman Jared Cowen and forwards Milan Michalek, Colin Greening and Tobias Lindberg, along with a 2017 second-round draft pick. “I’m really excited to have him”.

For Ottawa, acquiring a defenceman like Phaneuf could help their struggling back-end tremendously.

Bringing Phaneuf to Toronto was a Burke building block, his way in his words of putting teams together from the back end out. In the short-term, that’s a huge win.

Toronto is painfully thin up front at the moment, so it made sense for GM Lou Lamoriello to pick up a couple of short-term place fillers in Michalek (who can take on some of the injured James van Riemsdyk’s minutes) and Greening.

Ottawa wanted to get rid of poisonous contracts, and they shed their two worst ones in this deal. Just ask David Clarkson, who went from local hero to goat with his contract and unrealistic expectations in Toronto becoming being mercifully traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets.

“If you make a trade that satisfies your needs”, said Murray, “you can’t worry about the other team”. He had to surrender that number with Ottawa, where it has already been claimed by veteran defenceman Marc Methot. This team isn’t a sleeping giant in need of one or two players to push them over the top, and they aren’t going to take on insane contracts based on a pipe dream.

So the Leafs traded an untradeable contract, and even managed to get two future assets back in return. But teams wouldn’t pay that price because of Phaneuf’s salary.

The Ottawa Senators, for instance, are a team Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun has heard showed or are showing “interest” in Phaneuf. This is a monster deal, especially so early. But next season, Ottawa’s saving $4.2M in actual cash and that may just be enough for a Mike Hoffman extension.

Ottawa traded for a big-name, big-money player in hopes of winning in the short-term. They each have a few very good players, and then a good amount of crap.

Dion Phaneuf is reportedly involved in a lot of “trade chatter” around the National Hockey League. That may not be the best future plan for this franchise. The club was impressed and the Leafs signed him to a three-year entry-level deal. Bailey played some decent hockey over three years at Penn State before deciding to turn pro last year. Plus he’s a UFA at the end of the year. Donaghey is the most intriguing of the lot.

This season: Four goals and 14 assists in 38 games with the Marlies.

It had to feel unusual for Phaneuf, considering he played against the Senators in Ottawa as recently as Saturday night, and tough guy Chris Neil tried to goad him into a fight.

But the goaltender says it’s Phaneuf’s competitiveness that will be missed most. Sending him packing now, is building from the dollar signs out, opening roster spots and making salary manoeuvrings possible. With Phaneuf locked in the team will have stability as well which will help the development of home town boy Cody Ceci.