Leafs Trade Phaneuf to Ottawa in Blockbuster Deal

Toronto Maple Leafs captain Dion Phaneuf is playing better this season and it seems other teams around the league have taken notice.

The first of the new Maple Leafs to check in after the trade with Ottawa will be defenceman Jared Cowen. He had 97 points (playoffs included) for Oshawa last season under current Leafs assistant coach D.J. Smith. Good luck with that, Toronto.

None of Toronto’s newbies will be in action in Calgary. He said he joked with Marc Methot about moving into Methot’s No. 3, Phaneuf’s old number, but said he has too much respect for Methot to do that. It’s about the Calgary Flames.

And they’re not a team like Anaheim that’s better than their season-long numbers indicate. We’re a very proud hockey club.

“He’ll just bring, we hope, a presence to this organization”, said Murray. Did you get all that? They’re proud of representing this community.

It was the first multipoint game of the season for Granlund.

What do you think of the trade?

Even if there wasn’t the possibility of making a run at the rare franchise player in free agency it was a deal they had to get away from because it was only going to become a bigger albatross on their cap situation and would continue to limit their ability to add better players. Calgary has won three of their past four games.

They are four points behind the New York Islanders for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference. Wins here and there are nice, but they’re not necessarily the point. Colborne spent parts of three seasons in Toronto’s organization.

Up next, the Flames will embark on a two game Pacific Division road trip.

Ottawa also received AHL forwards Matt Frattin, Casey Bailey, Ryan Rupert and junior defenceman Cody Donaghey.

“It was pretty emotional for a lot of the guys”.

As the captain of the Maple Leafs, one of the highest paid players in the league, and the top defenseman on a consistently bad defensive team, Phaneuf was always going to be the target for criticism when things went poorly.

Toronto was also missing recently injured Joffrey Lupul, Tyler Bozak and Shawn Matthias. I had no idea anything like this was coming or anything like that, but really excited to have him coming in here. The Leafs, in a likely attempt to prop him up for just such a trade, were employing their captain in less strenuous duties under new head coach Mike Babcock.

Leivo got one back late in the second and Gardiner’s goal at 8:37 of the third set up a furious finish. That would give the Leafs two centres to build around for more than a decade.

A hot topic postgame was Mark Giordano’s hard, open-ice hit on Nazem Kadri in the first period. The pressure on Dion was enormous, he was the player who was supposed to turn it around, everything rose or fell with him.

“We’re so used to seeing him with the “C” on for the Toronto Maple Leafs”, Ceci said, “but now he’s a teammate so all that’s behind us”. “I had a little bit of time and it was just a good shot in a good spot”. “It was an emotional reaction and that’s about it”, he said.

Jonas Hiller will be between the pipes for the Flames, who have dropped six of their past nine dates on Saddledome ice.

–Arizona recalled forward Tyler Gaudet from the Coyotes’ AHL Springfield affiliate.