diceman934
Help is on the way.
Don't get me wrong, I wish we could add Bouwmeester to our blueline, but I'd still take Dion in a heartbeat over JayBo, who has found himself in a great situation compared to Phaneuf. Dion has consistenty outscored Bouwmeester by a substantial margin throughout their careers, but suddenly JayBo is putting up monster numbers... call it the Pietrangelo effect.
Who would you rather play with, Pieterangelo or Gunnarsson? How many points would Phaneuf have playing with a big, fast, talented budding superstar just entering his prime like Alex instead of Gunnar?
Which group of forwards are easier to play defense behind, the stingy Blues or the Leafs?
Re Dion's offensive numbers, I saw an interview two weeks ago. Dion said that Carlyle doesn't want his Dmen blasting away, looking for goals. He wants them to direct the puck at the net, looking for deflections and rebounds. That might explain why we only have 3 goals from our blueline all year (Dion has 2 of them). Franson, Gardiner, Rielly have all been shut out.
I enjoy your posts Diceman. You're one of the best posters here. And even though some of your criticism is valid, I think you're being a little hard on Phaneuf. No, he's not Chara, but he's on the outer edge of "elite" Dmen. And (unlike the braindead Dion bashers) you acknowledge that he's having a hell of a year.
On the HNIC pregame show, they were talking about how, with the new TV deal, the cap is projected to go as high as $80M over the next 3-4 years, or maybe even more! Even if they give Dion a raise, it will be a bargain a few years down the road. I shudder to think of this blueline without him. Guys that can do what Dion can do (be physical, excel in a shutdown role against the best players in the game, and still add significant offensive numbers) are extremely hard to come by. And when you get one, you keep him.
Thanks for the kind words.
My issue with Dion has always been his affect on the team.....
The cap is going to go, we all know this, but we will need the cap space to resign many players who will be required to remain competitive. The fact that Bolland and Lupul have been out and our record without them is not very good leads me to believe that leadership is an issue.
I like what Dion brings to the team on the ice, but he is not the player we need to drop a Max term deal on as I question his ability to lead the team. His contract and that of his team mates need to be moveable if things are not working out and a 8 year 7M plus deal makes Dion not moveable.
Dion at 6.5M for 5 or 6 years maximum is a good contract. We need the salary amount to be lower the longer the term to make him a asset that we can move if needed. Dion had a great year last year and as well this year, however we need to be thinking 3 to 4 years down the road.
I'm not in the group that feel that if we do not resign Dion we will be done....as long as we replace him with a physical D man who can play lots of minutes we would be fine. We have all kinds of D man who can replace his offense. We currently have 3 D man in the minors that will be ready for the NHL soon and we need to make decisions that is best for us long term.
Dion at 7M plus 7 years, is not a good decision in my opinion long term. This is the type of decisions that has hurt us historically and with the cap it makes us stagnate in our ability to improve.
Dion's value may be at it's highest right now, and trading him may help us long term. We are not a cup contender now but in 2 to 4 years we may be, however the decisions we make now effects the ability we may require to the pieces we will need to take the next step.