Again, the vast majority of Kronwall's old hits happened in the offensive zone. Go do a quick youtube search of his top hits to see for yourself. Rarely did they ever lead to odd mad rushes because Detroit's support system was there to prevent that from happening.
Puck luck goes a long way when accounting for goals; lack thereof is not always on the individual player, specifically for a defenseman. Creating space, opening lanes, delivering crisp passes, screening the goalie, etc... are all of these things on the shooter?
For the record, Dion has 103 shots so far this year. Kronwall only has 79. But go on believing Dion can't hit the net because of his low goal count.
Kronwalls hits when he knows his fowards are on the backcheck
In the Boston game, He just runs over the guy who has the puck with Kessel in the Ozone (just lost the puck) and his teamate screening the goalie (still thinking kessel has the puck) Phanuef doesnt know when to hit... Not to mention countless times he hits his own players and bumps into them (He runs into JVR)
Ok..He has shots.. Theyre obviouvsly shooting into the right in the middle of the goalies jersey.. he has 3 goals this season.... 2 goals are on the Powerplay.. .. That means he has 1 even strength goal in fifty six games... You can not honestly believe he has had bad puck luck for that long.
1 even strength goal (maybe Short handed). 3 goals total
Kronwall 8 goals and 79 shots. More goals and less shots (not to mention that he thinks pass first, always tries to trick people thinking he will slap it)
Danny D 2 goals, 75 shots (1 less than Phanuef)
Jonathan Ericsson same amount of goals.. And I actually watch him alot.. He CANT hit the net. for real. and he has 71 shots.. This is obviouvsly him just shooting right into the goalies chest. For an easy save.
Kyle Quincey.. same amount of goals
Jakub Kindl.. More goals and alot less games
Brendan Smith.. More goals
Xaiver Ouellet. 1 less goal in 20 games
Marek Zidlicky. 1 less goal and he has only played with us for 4 games
Marchenko 1 goal alot less games
They dont want him for his Offensive Production.... The thing with Toronto is that they score alot... And allow more... Toronto does not have a bad offense... they jsut have a garbage garbage garbage defense. which is why they suck... So his point total WILL NOT change much at all
Going back to the shot thing
Dion = 103 shots.
Just go look at the nhl.com page... ALOT of the dmen have more shots then him... And some of them arent known for their offense..
So no... He really cant hit the net alot.
The Leafs had to trade more core guys but they didn't. I don't think they are really tanking per se or what would have helped more and gave them a better position in the standings to increase their odds. Most Leaf fans think they are tanking and will clean house. They are foolish, though. The Leafs organization only cares about $$ and have never really cleaned house. Anyway, enough about that topic...
No, Phaneuf is a lousy dman. Whether you pay him 7 mill. or 5 mill. He's lazy, is very poor positionally wise and a poor skater especially in his own zone. He has awful hockey sense and cannot cover players. For his size, he is not very tough - if you push him around, he caves. You can look at the Bruins series playoff not too long ago.
Anyway, if you are smart, you will not go anywhere near #3. You'll regret it, if they do.
Phanuef CAN be a top 4 dman.. The question is.. Does he want too? You should be playing amazing even if you are on a bad team. no matter what you are a professional
I dont think he wants to be a top 2/4 dman
otherwise more teams would be begging for him And Detroit wouldnt be the front runners up to get him since they dont like to trade the top prospects.
For the record, I do not believe he is a cancer, but it is indeed an interesting topic to me. Because watching 24/7, man, there's not a whole lot off the ice that says "leader" with him. Frankly, the fact that he's an NHL captain is somewhat laughable to me; and helps make Toronto's woes not at all surprising. Blind leading the blind type of thing.
In the end, the fact that he wouldn't be a captain here, wouldn't play on the top pair, and would have fewer minutes than in Toronto would all go a long way toward possibly making him a valuable piece. But I would still bet against it. And it still wouldn't be worth it to me, given his cap hit, unless Toronto did in fact eat a bunch of it AND we still were able to unload Weiss.
Id happy take Phanuef if they can eat almost half of the salary and we can unload Weiss and Kindl.
Hes not worse then Kindl. Hes probably alittle bit better then Ericsson (maybe)
Hes not better then Kronner... Not better then DD and Quincey (in the dzone)
Top 4 dman
Though I still would go after someone else... That contract length is hideous for him
Id rather go for a Free Agent dman.. Overpay if you have too... Only a little though.. Dont pay Boychuck like 8 mil.... Cap is Rising.. We shouldnt be paying people less then Kronner even if they arent as good (Kronners having an off year, and is pretty old) Kronner wont throw a hissy fit about it either... No reason to not overpay a little for something that you need when you have the cap space