Sure it changes direction but the return wasn't some huge thing. They'll be spending a lot of real dollars to make it happen. If they had to they could still make Dion work here, it was just better not to.
Value on trade is the Winnik deal.
Winnik was free to get. UFA
Polak cost us Gunner and a 4th + cap retention.
Think about it.
The return wasn't some huge thing?!?
The return on Phaneuf was, no retention of salary, plus a good prospect and a 2nd rounder.
That no retention is huge - it's the same value as a low first round pick, IMHO. Phaneuf's decline and value was at least 2.5 mil below his salary, and sweet Lou Lou lemon used our huge advantage (lots of cap space) to our advantage to be able to get that return by taking on other expiring bad contracts.
You can't even compare moving a Phaneuf and getting real value for him, to those other players . . . since all of those other players - some of whom we got very good return on, for sure - were EASY TO MOVE. No no-trade clauses . . . not severely overpaid . . . and no big restructuring necessary to fit them in.
Phaneuf's situation was by far the most complicated deal to make, with the least amount of options, and the highest chance to be looked at negatively by the fans. And sweet Lube job greased the Sens here, and did it all with no retention.
No retention.
Got a 2nd rounder, which could be in the higher range.
Got a decent prospect.
That to me is an A+ trade.
And that's no offense to the Polak return, or the Winnik return, which was awesome. But the degree of difficulty cannot even be compared.