Dion Phaneuf: His time in Calgary

[CedarMeter]

Originally Posted by Otto-matic

I was always confused why Keenan was sacked, he got a lot out of his teams during his tenure here. Granted he had his faults but he did a hell of a lot better then Brent Sutter. This shines a bit of light onto why Keenan was terminated early in his contract.

Sutter told him it was ownership that was firing him. Might have been a cop out.

" Darryl Sutter when he fired me, he said if you didn't have those injuries you'd be still coaching, so I said why are you firing me and he said 'I'm not firing you the owners are firing you," said Keenan, who won a Stanley Cup in 1994 with the New York Rangers."

[Toonage]

The person writing this would have had to be on the bench and the dressing room and privy to private conversations and in the room with the coaches.

So....a ghost.

[ToewsFan]

Originally Posted by Calgary4LIfe

This narrative wouldn't surprise me, but I do think it is mostly narrative. I remember after the Dion trade, there were some GMs that were 'surprised' that Dion was even available, and at least one apparently stated he would have given more up for Phaneuf. No GMs were named, so this was just rumors that the media came out with, but it does contradict the narrative above.

I don't know.. I am glad he wasn't a part of the Flames for a while. He had an amazing start to his career (only 2 defencemen scored more goals to start their careers in the first 2 (or 3) seasons - Orr and Coffey), but it was easy to see he was more of an issue than an asset, though most here feel the return was very underwhelming.

If you look at the fact that Phaneuf was traded from Toronto to Ottawa, a hated division rival, it does seem to make sense. Why would Toronto deal their captain to Ottawa, if they thought it would makes the Sens better, unless of course, there were issues behind the scenes that could be a distraction for the team.

Just my two cents...

[Strange Brew]

That was fun to read.

But I find it hard to believe that someone could be so hated and considered so selfish, and then suddenly be made captain of their new team. That just doesn't add up to me, so have to believe the story has a significant amount of embellishment and made up stuff.

[868904]

Lots of questions about that article:

I thought Langkow was Phaneuf's best bud on the team, lots of pictures of them vacationing together;
Hard to believe Keenan was stressing defence from Dion when you look at the complete and utter lack of any defensive system the Flames had under Keenan;
and as noted by another poster, many GMs noted after the trade that they had no idea Dion was available, which contradicts the idea that he was shopped around the league.

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by Toonage

The person writing this would have had to be on the bench and the dressing room and privy to private conversations and in the room with the coaches.

So....a ghost.

Hockey players and staff love to talk about their careers. If you've spent any time around guys who have finished their career who are friendly with you, you will hear all kinds of crazy stories.

[ToewsFan]

Originally Posted by 868904

Lots of questions about that article:

I thought Langkow was Phaneuf's best bud on the team, lots of pictures of them vacationing together;
Hard to believe Keenan was stressing defence from Dion when you look at the complete and utter lack of any defensive system the Flames had under Keenan;
and as noted by another poster, many GMs noted after the trade that they had no idea Dion was available, which contradicts the idea that he was shopped around the league.

I thought that too, but the fact that Phaneuf was traded from Toronto to a division rival, with a bunch of AHL castaways for a bunch of AHL castaways has you wondering why the return of Phaneuf has been so weak.

[ToewsFan]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

Hockey players and staff love to talk about their careers. If you've spent any time around guys who have finished their career who are friendly with you, you will hear all kinds of crazy stories.

The author mentions he heard most of the post he wrote during the Vancouver Olympics in 2010. He mentions that he was unaware of the Bertuzzi bit until later on.

[Toonage]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

Hockey players and staff love to talk about their careers. If you've spent any time around guys who have finished their career who are friendly with you, you will hear all kinds of crazy stories.

I have and you're right, but these are the kind of stories that one person couldn't tell. It would have to be a few. But it sort of seems like its all coming from one guy.

Edit - And now I see that the original author pieced this together from (alleged) various sources.

[868904]

Originally Posted by ToewsFan

I thought that too, but the fact that Phaneuf was traded from Toronto to a division rival, with a bunch of AHL castaways for a bunch of AHL castaways has you wondering why the return of Phaneuf has been so weak.

Keep in mind that by the Ottawa trade, Phaneuf's value had already diminished significantly.

Darryl should have got more for Dion. He was still a prime asset. I don't believe he was shopped to every team and comments by other GMs support that.

[the2bears]

Originally Posted by ToewsFan

I thought that too, but the fact that Phaneuf was traded from Toronto to a division rival, with a bunch of AHL castaways for a bunch of AHL castaways has you wondering why the return of Phaneuf has been so weak.

I wouldn't be so quick to draw any conclusions about his time in Calgary from your perceptions on the Toronto to Ottawa trade.

[ToewsFan]

Originally Posted by the2bears

I wouldn't be so quick to draw any conclusions about his time in Calgary from your perceptions on the Toronto to Ottawa trade.

Considering the fact that Phaneuf went from being named Leafs captain in 2010 to getting dealt for scraps just five years later, a sign that maybe Toronto had unrealistic expectations of him. It fits the authors narrative.

[CaptainCrunch]

All I know is that once he signed that second contract his game went completely in the toilet.

Whether it was a combination of hip issues which effected his speed and agility or his ego is going to be up for debate.

He was pretty much a shadow of his rookie self by the time he departed.

I always take the GM's out there saying that they would have offered more, or they didn't know a player was available.

I don't think that anything is a secret in the NHL in terms of availability, but a GM is going to say something like that even if its anonymous so they can defend their lack of action.

"So boss/owner that was me in the paper saying I didn't know he was available"

"I totally would have offered more for this guy"

Do I believe that the Leafs offer was the best one to be had? Not sure, but probably not. Do I believe that Sutter believed it was the best value that he would have gotten? Absolutely

[habernac]

Why are you posting HF garbage here?

[Calgary4LIfe]

Another tidbit that makes this story a bit more difficult to believe was what Warrener came out with on his first day on the Fan960. He mentioned that Regehr and him were trying to get Dion to buy more into defence, and Dion's reply would be "as long as I am scoring and making big hits, that's all I need to do" or something like that. It gives a bit of credence to the above story.. but then there is this tidbit:

Because Dion refused to get direction from either Warrener or Regehr, the two of them approached Keenan and asked him to force Dion. Keenan basically didn't take them seriously, and kept playing Dion quite a lot. Now, if it was true that Keenan didn't like Dion and wanted him traded, citing his 'two cent brain', then why give Dion that much ice? Why not heed the advice of his two defensive stalwarts and take advantage of their willingness to spend time with Dion and teach him the finer points of defending?

Too many plot holes interlaced with some truth in the OP's post for me to really take it seriously. I am sure Dion was a bit polarizing, even in the locker room, but I imagine it wasn't at that level where his teammates openly cheered him moving on.

If a coach doesn't like a player, he doesn't play said player. Coaches love their vets. Why? Because they trust them to help them win a game (or at the very least, not lose it for them). If Keenan really thought Dion was that stupid and that bad defensively, why on Earth would he be playing him on the top pair against the top lines in the league? He was obviously angry over getting fired, so his motivation was definitely not one of "I want them to fire me".

Too many plot holes in the OP's story (I mean, not the OP's story, but the story that he re-posted here).

Good read though. Not much happening, so any hockey-related story (fiction or not) is a welcome distraction.

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by Calgary4LIfe

Another tidbit that makes this story a bit more difficult to believe was what Warrener came out with on his first day on the Fan960. He mentioned that Regehr and him were trying to get Dion to buy more into defence, and Dion's reply would be "as long as I am scoring and making big hits, that's all I need to do" or something like that. It gives a bit of credence to the above story.. but then there is this tidbit:

Because Dion refused to get direction from either Warrener or Regehr, the two of them approached Keenan and asked him to force Dion. Keenan basically didn't take them seriously, and kept playing Dion quite a lot. Now, if it was true that Keenan didn't like Dion and wanted him traded, citing his 'two cent brain', then why give Dion that much ice? Why not heed the advice of his two defensive stalwarts and take advantage of their willingness to spend time with Dion and teach him the finer points of defending?

Too many plot holes interlaced with some truth in the OP's post for me to really take it seriously. I am sure Dion was a bit polarizing, even in the locker room, but I imagine it wasn't at that level where his teammates openly cheered him moving on.

If a coach doesn't like a player, he doesn't play said player. Coaches love their vets. Why? Because they trust them to help them win a game (or at the very least, not lose it for them). If Keenan really thought Dion was that stupid and that bad defensively, why on Earth would he be playing him on the top pair against the top lines in the league? He was obviously angry over getting fired, so his motivation was definitely not one of "I want them to fire me".

Too many plot holes in the OP's story (I mean, not the OP's story, but the story that he re-posted here).

Good read though. Not much happening, so any hockey-related story (fiction or not) is a welcome distraction.

If you read his post, the mandate from his boss was to keep playing Phaneuf without cutting his minutes.

The same mandate given to Brent Sutter.

It's right there in the post.

[Manhattanboy]

Clearly Dion was not liked by several teammates.

I recall being at a Flames charity poker event and one of the then Flames d-men who I will not name (ok, Warrener) was not shy in making some pretty disparaging remarks about Dion with a few of us standing right there.

I kind of felt bad for Dion.

[Jiggy_12]

While this is basically in line with what a lot of people have said and heard, just because some unknown guy on the internet put it in writing doesn't make it any more or less true.

No harm in sharing I suppose but I would hope this doesn't increase or decrease anyone's factual basis about the situation.

[Fan in Exile]

Yeah, and I also heard Dougie Hamilton was traded by the Bruins because he was an uppity loner...

[Mass_nerder]

I would imagine it's tough to be a kid coming up in junior and hearing how amazing you are for years and not buying into the talk. Sometimes it takes a long time for guys to grow up.