Fallen Leafs
Send me your lovely banter and your acerbic wit: fallen.leafs@ymail.com
(via danielpholt)
CGY is on the bubble for a playoff spot. They get four NHLers for two so they can try some line combos to find one that works.
Personally, I think Ian White will be an upgrade over Phanuef.
The biggest concern for the Leafs is Dion Phaneuf’s cap hit of $6.5 million. Toronto easily has the most money tied to their defencemen of any team in the NHL. That being said, the Leafs manage to obtain another forward who replaces the outgoing Jamal Mayers, while Keith Aulie is a solid prospect, albeit from a poor farm system in Calgary. Dion Phaneuf is still only 24 years old, and his upside is greater than Ian White simply because he’s shown it in the past. White, as of now, should be an upgrade for the Flames, but his attraction was definitely tied to his cheap contract. He becomes a RFA at the end of the season and most definitely is in line to ask for a $3.5 million per year contract.
I think White contributes more to his team than Phaneuf.
Phaneuf: 2.77 GF per 60 min ice time
White: 2.82 GF per 60 min ice time
When Phaneuf is on the ice, GA were 2.64 - but 1.96 when he was off the ice. Whereas White is 2.82 GA on vs. 2.78 off. So Phaneuf costs his team almost a goal per 60 min when he is on the ice - not something you want in a d-man, regardess of age.
Dion Phaneuf’s play has regressed over the years, which is not something to ignore at all. That being said, White’s greatest value still lies in his contract. He’s performing head and shoulders over it. However, when his salary jumps next season, his performance will likely match his production. The Leafs are undertaking a major financial risk with Phaneuf, but Toronto’s defence is also quite deep for a 29th place team. That will somewhat mitigate the deficiencies of Phaneuf’s game. I don’t know how much, but he won’t be asked to shoulder the load by himself at all.
Despite his pedestrian statistics, Phaneuf still has faced the highest QUALCOMP on his team amongst d-men, while playing with the weakest set of teammates at -0.076 QUALTEAM. Probably most importantly, Phaneuf’s GF/ON is significantly higher when he’s on the ice than not. That GF/ON - GF/OFF differential has been a constant throughout his years in Calgary. And Calgary’s an even worse offensive team than Toronto. For a team like Toronto that is recently struggling to score goals, especially on the Power Play, Phaneuf is in theory supposed to rectify that problem.
