Hey, reading a lot of emotion on this thread and its understandable. It feels a lot better to see Phaneuf as a plug after he was given away for next to nothing. The fact is that he was a very entertaining player for the Flames and it took the heart out of the team when he was let go.
If you forget about that and just look at Phaneuf and watch him play today he is certainly a number 1D, not in the top 10 of number 1s but i don't think you can find 20 better then him.
That being said, in hindsight i would take solace in the fact had the trade not happened, the Flames would still probably be what they are today, and perhaps even worse because they would have hung on with the old core for a bit longer and delayed the rebuild.
|