The funny thing about a lot of hockey fans is they never see a middle ground, where the truth usually sits.
BigTuna is absolutely right in saying that Phaneuf played the 'hardest' minutes of any d-man in the league. I personally believe this level of competition is above his level of ability, as shown by mistake-prone play and possession numbers hanging around 40% (aka somewhere in between Chris Butler and Brian McGrattan). Also worth mentioning that Gio and Brodie were both top 15 (toughest) in competition and zone starts. Not like either had it easy.
That said, Phaneuf has shown to be a dominating offensive defensman when not saddled with crazy-tough minutes. If he played the type of minutes that guys like Karlsson, Doughty, Keith or even Pietrangelo or Kronwall play, I personally believe he'd go back to being a break-even possession guy who could score at at least 0.5PPG. Yes, he's mistake-prone, but so are a lot of good defensemen at times. I truly believe that a lot of teams would love to have him as a #2 on a more protected top pairing (a la Keith/Seabrook, where Hjalmarsson and Oduya play the shutdown role) or as an elite #3 with PP minutes (think maybe Shattenkirk or Wisniewski). At 7 million, probably not what you want. At 5?
|