Quote:
Originally Posted by BigTuna
He would be the best defenseman on teams like New York, Pittsburgh and Anaheim easy. This "Second/Third Pairing" talk is nuts. He was +19 most of the season in Toronto shutting-down the NHL's top stars.
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LMAO!
It says many things about Dion Phaneuf that you had to cherry pick +/- to try and make a positive argument.
However, yes. At one arbitrary point in time, he was +19 on the season. Then came March (-15) and April (-3), and he was a significant reason why the Leafs went 5-14-1 over that period to epic fail right out of the playoffs.
Also, the fact that he faced the highest QoC in the league doesn't mean he should have. Chris Butler, after all, once played on our top pairing with Jay Bouwmeester. I doubt you would argue he is actually a #2 defenceman.