Quote:
Originally Posted by FlamesAllTheWay
One of the pundits on TSN said it best (and I paraphrase):
You don't trade a guy like Dion Phaneuf to shake things up or to get more offensive depth at forward. You trade him to get him out of town.
The guy was a cancer in the room. A distraction, and that was the driving force behind this trade. Everyone here knows he will become even better than he is now. Contend for the Norris. Likely be a franchise D-man somewhere. Play for Team Canada. It wont come as a suprise when it happens either. Yet, we traded him anyways. People can counter with "show me proof" all they want. This is something that has been lingering around this team for the past few seasons and never really goes away. A little more than, say, just a random Eklund blog post that quickly fades into oblivion. In that sense this trade becomes a bit of an addition by subtraction as well. Also lowered Phaneuf's trade value a bit... we had to throw in a good prospect along with Dion to make this happen.
Good return, IMO. We are a better team today than we were yesterday. Hagman and Stajan can pitch in with offence here and there. White has been playing great in Toronto this year. Second best D from what I understand. Cheap too. Biggest thing is that we now have options on the ice and off the ice, with regards to the salary cap. Sutter may finally understand that putting all your eggs into one basket and then hoping your bargain players overachieve may not be the best approach to building a team. Probably signals a bit of a shift in his whole managerial philosophy.
Very happy with this. I think we will start to see some positive change with this team as a result.
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Good post. My thoughts exactly.
I think we are a better team today. If we keep Jokinen then we have really good depth at centre. Conroy wont play another game this season or possibly ever with the Flames.
We desperately needed a LW to play in the top six. As disappointing as Hagman as a 'name' may be he is a dependable top six player. The revolving door of Glencross, Moss, Conroy, Boyd just wasn't hacking it and was actually disrupting chemistry alot. The afformentioned players got away from the play that made their game good playing in a top six role and then had to readjust when they went down.
Finally, you can absolutely bet that the Sutter bros talked extensively about this trade and what they thought Phaneuf could bring to this team going forward. They DO NOT make this trade if they think Phaneuf helps this team win now AND in the future. I'm pretty sure that B. Sutter saw all he needed to see in Phaneuf and that his development -with this franchise at least- was running its course. The Sutters are not stupid, they addressed some key areas of weakness on this team by dealing from a position of strength and also through some addition by subtraction. Phaneuf just wasn't a 6.5 million dollar player and we had to get out from under that cap allotment to improve the makeup of the team.
Will this trade work out? Who knows. But you don't win championships by playing it safe all the time. There comes a point where you just have to roll the dice. Where you need to address issues with your team. Where you throw things at the wall and see what happens. I congratulate Sutter for having the bollocks to do a major shakeup. This team is loaded with superstar big time players. He didnt want a huge name coming back one for one with Dion he needed complimentary pieces to round out the team's jagged edges. I hope it works. I think Hagman, Stajan and White (in particular) are solid complimentary players to support our core.
In many ways its the model Vancouver has followed and that has brought them really good success. They are not loaded with superstars but are balanced with legitimate attack in their top four and top 6. Today we look alot more like that than a teetering top-heavy squad with no foundation.
Go Flames Go!