Strangelove said:
Potvin29 said:
Strangelove said:
And with Phaneuf signed we're gonna have the core of this team in place long term.
Phaneuf's been very good this season against arguably the toughest competition + zone starts in the entire NHL. This bad game doesn't change that.
The team has been very bad this year with him at the helm. I'd say he's been fine, but not particularly good, though I know a lot of people would disagree with that. To me he looks slow, he gives the puck away a lot, and he doesn't always make good decisions. I just see him as a solid defenseman who is wildly overrated in terms of the price he commands vs. what he gives you.
I personally think people have unrealistic expectations of what Phaneuf, or most D in the league, would provide if put in Phaneuf's position right now. And it's hard to compare to other D in the league that you don't watch on a nightly basis or with the same intensity as we watch the Leafs. I'd argue it's far from a given that if you were to put all of the other top D in the league into his position that they wouldn't have periods of struggle and see their offensive numbers impacted to some degree.
If you look (and put stock into) these
stats Phaneuf has the 5th worst offensive zone start % among D in the league (meaning least in the offensive zone to start a shift from a faceoff) while facing tougher competition than anyone other than Jan Hejda on that list.
He's being put in very tough positions. I'm sure it's affecting his ability to perform in the offensive zone, as I'm sure the tough minutes take their toll (although his Pts/60 still stack up well).
And it's too difficult to comment on things such as his individual role in the team's success or failure. There's been plenty of players I consider great or elite that never won anything that I wouldn't put on their shoulders. I just personally don't know how to argue for or against that point.