Sunday, January 31, 2010
Traded Phaneuf
The die was cast at the end of June 2009. Darryl Sutter may have hoped that paying both J-Bo and Dion $6.5M/yr for years to come was a good plan, but it wasn't; 50+ games this season have shown fairly clearly that it wasn't; and fortunately for we Flames fans, Sutter has acknowledged that it wasn't and acted.
I'm not at all excited to see Phaneuf go. And Stajan, White, and Hagman don't make anyone's hearts skip a beat. But this was a necessary move. I'd say there's very little doubt that it makes them better right now, and it gives them the opportunity to be better in the seasons going forward.
The only way this trade could have been better is if it was basically straight up for a quality young forward (Perry, Semin, that type of thing), but Phaneuf just hasn't been good enough lately to make something like that happen.
It's probably about the best move Sutter could have made. Yes, it was to clean up his own mess, but the alternative to that -- not cleaning up his own messes -- sucks much worse.
I'm not at all excited to see Phaneuf go. And Stajan, White, and Hagman don't make anyone's hearts skip a beat. But this was a necessary move. I'd say there's very little doubt that it makes them better right now, and it gives them the opportunity to be better in the seasons going forward.
The only way this trade could have been better is if it was basically straight up for a quality young forward (Perry, Semin, that type of thing), but Phaneuf just hasn't been good enough lately to make something like that happen.
It's probably about the best move Sutter could have made. Yes, it was to clean up his own mess, but the alternative to that -- not cleaning up his own messes -- sucks much worse.
# posted by Matt @ 11:07 am 
Comments:
I don't mind the deal from the Flames' point of view, Matt.
Bouwmeester cost them nothing but money and he is a better player than Dion, imo.
And they get three useful NHL players in exchange. White is surprisingly solid and Hagman has produced in the west before, he's a guy I like quite a bit.
And Stajan as a rental.
Pretty good I would say.
Matt -
White looks pretty good to me. He may not be as good as Phaneuf, but it's not as big a gap as you think.
Yes, it was to clean up his own mess, but the alternative to that -- not cleaning up his own messes -- sucks much worse.
HINT HINT!
Speaking as a Canucks fan, I like this trade. I think the Flames are, in the present, at least, less threatening without Phaneuf in the lineup.
I equate it a bit to the Pavel Bure deal, in that the GM has to take what he can get for a player who no longer fits into the team.
White can fill the defensive hole left by Phaneuf adequately, and together with Gio will likely cover Dion's offence.
Hagman and Stajan are two solid 40 point guys who can line up anywhere and play the toughs.
As a Canucks fan I don't see how you can think this makes the Flames in any way easier to play against. The now have one of the steadiest forward cores in the league.
Also a D of Boomer, Hemsky-Headshot, Giordano, White, with a Sarich type tossed in isn't exactly swiss cheese.
The Flames desperately needed more offense, that's obvious. I think the modest gains on offense from the new forwards are more than offset by the loss of Phaneuf's complete package on the back-end.
Phaneuf was hard to play against every night at both ends of the ice. Will White be that guy? I doubt it. You're welcome to disagree. The answer will be in where the Flames end up in the standings at the end of the year.
Better yet, for you Matt, not oiler fans, is that Sutter is about to off-load Jokinen as well. See Dreger's twitter for more info.
Hot-fuck the oilers management cannot look worse right now.
2 out scorers on forward will go a long ways. Also White has been playing as much or more minutes on a Leafs team that is 27th in goals against this season, and is a plus player. Statistically he has more points than Phaneuf. While he won't get any big hits, he also won't be out of position trying to get any big hits anytime soon.
Sure Phaneuf has a much much better upside, but short term, at least this season, White has been better. I think people here are seriously underestimating how solid of a player White has become and is.
I can respect your opinion that the Flames would be easier to play against now, but from where I stand, they just got a whole lot deeper and more difficult to play against. 3 solid pairing and 4 forward lines they can just roll. Even if they only go up .5 goals a game, they just got hella tougher to score against.
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I don't mind the deal from the Flames' point of view, Matt.
Bouwmeester cost them nothing but money and he is a better player than Dion, imo.
And they get three useful NHL players in exchange. White is surprisingly solid and Hagman has produced in the west before, he's a guy I like quite a bit.
And Stajan as a rental.
Pretty good I would say.
Matt -
White looks pretty good to me. He may not be as good as Phaneuf, but it's not as big a gap as you think.
Yes, it was to clean up his own mess, but the alternative to that -- not cleaning up his own messes -- sucks much worse.
HINT HINT!
Speaking as a Canucks fan, I like this trade. I think the Flames are, in the present, at least, less threatening without Phaneuf in the lineup.
I equate it a bit to the Pavel Bure deal, in that the GM has to take what he can get for a player who no longer fits into the team.
White can fill the defensive hole left by Phaneuf adequately, and together with Gio will likely cover Dion's offence.
Hagman and Stajan are two solid 40 point guys who can line up anywhere and play the toughs.
As a Canucks fan I don't see how you can think this makes the Flames in any way easier to play against. The now have one of the steadiest forward cores in the league.
Also a D of Boomer, Hemsky-Headshot, Giordano, White, with a Sarich type tossed in isn't exactly swiss cheese.
The Flames desperately needed more offense, that's obvious. I think the modest gains on offense from the new forwards are more than offset by the loss of Phaneuf's complete package on the back-end.
Phaneuf was hard to play against every night at both ends of the ice. Will White be that guy? I doubt it. You're welcome to disagree. The answer will be in where the Flames end up in the standings at the end of the year.
Better yet, for you Matt, not oiler fans, is that Sutter is about to off-load Jokinen as well. See Dreger's twitter for more info.
Hot-fuck the oilers management cannot look worse right now.
2 out scorers on forward will go a long ways. Also White has been playing as much or more minutes on a Leafs team that is 27th in goals against this season, and is a plus player. Statistically he has more points than Phaneuf. While he won't get any big hits, he also won't be out of position trying to get any big hits anytime soon.
Sure Phaneuf has a much much better upside, but short term, at least this season, White has been better. I think people here are seriously underestimating how solid of a player White has become and is.
I can respect your opinion that the Flames would be easier to play against now, but from where I stand, they just got a whole lot deeper and more difficult to play against. 3 solid pairing and 4 forward lines they can just roll. Even if they only go up .5 goals a game, they just got hella tougher to score against.
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