Senators get Phaneuf from Maple Leafs in 9-player trade

TSN Hockey Insider Bob McKenzie is hearing lots of trade chatter regarding Toronto Maple Leafs captain Dion Phaneuf and is starting to think he could move prior to the February 29th deadline. He’s off to Ottawa along with forwards Matt Frattin, Casey Bailey and Ryan Rupert, and Donaghey for Jared Cowen, Milan Michalek, Tobias Lindberg and Greening. Phaneuf and the $7 million cap hit he’ll carry through 2020-21 were poor fits for a club in the early stages of a rebuild, much like those of David Clarkson and Phil Kessel who were dumped before him.

On the Leafs depth chart, while Lindberg probably sits behind William Nylander, Mitch Marner, Andreas Johnson, Connor Brown, Kasperi Kapanen, Jeremy Bracco and Dmytro Timashov as a forward prospect, he slides in ahead of or in the same conversations as the likes Nikita Soshnikov. For his struggling team to have any hope of returning to the playoffs this season, he had to patch up their 28th-ranked defense.

Phaneuf, had skated in 423 games with the Maple Leafs through parts of seven seasons, registering 196 points (45 goals and 151 assists) and 598 penalty minutes. He has publicly stated his interest in staying in Tampa Bay and winning with the Lightning.

“It’s about getting an experienced leader, good person, hardworking, competitive guy to add to the mix in our top four”, said Murray, who noted that Phaneuf will likely be in the lineup Wednesday against Detroit and paired with Cody Ceci. Only Columbus has allowed as many goals as the 170 given up by Ottawa. They have very, very rarely been trade partners. Toronto isn’t going to make the playoffs, tried to move Phaneuf previous year but couldn’t and is in the process of clearing its salary cap situation (they still have all kinds of dead money) to make progress in the future possible.

Just last week, GM Lou Lamoriello said he had been an “unreal” help to the coaching staff this season.

In the end, it still looks like this deal is going to help the Maple Leafs more than it helps the Senators in the long term. He adds a veteran presence to the blue line as well as another offensive option. Whether that’s the case later remains to be seen, but the immediacy of his impact appears to be the big key in the deal. The Senators are four points out of the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.

Petr Mrazek, who made 23 saves for his second shutout in five starts, has won nine of 12 and owns a 1.18 GAA with a. 955 save percentage in his last 11. If there’s anything this deal does, it shows his team that he has not given up on the season yet and the expectations remain high even as they’re sagging in the standings.