News Article: Dion Phaneuf retires, to be honoured by Maple Leafs

[WickedPegJets]

The former captain of the Maple Leafs will be honoured this evening ahead of the game against the Predators.

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[ottomaddox]

I wish him well.

 

[Leafblooded]

Is Elisha gonna be there?

 

[TheGreatOne11]

Enjoy the Girl next door roleplay every night my dude.

Will never forget how you changed the course of a franchise, with just one click of the radio dial

 

[stickty111]

Beat of luck to Dion. Will always maintain he and Kessel got way too much hate here. It's not their fault the management group was completely garbage and built a team around them. They are great support pieces.

 

[capfit9]

honouring complete failure ?

 

[FreeBird]

honouring complete failure ?

of Burke and Nonis

 

[Bellefour20]

I will wear my Phaneuf jersey tonight then. He did the best he could with what he had and shielded the rest of the team and franchise from most of the criticism. His clean hitting ability has been missed.

 

[Buds17]

Deserves his due as the former captain. Unfortunate that the team success just wasn't there to much of a degree.

 

[diehardleafsfan9878]

Has he still been getting paid by somebody? I had figured he was already retired.

 

[Trapper]

Has he still been getting paid by somebody? I had figured he was already retired.

He was bought out by the LA Kings in 2019.
I believe they still pay the remaining portion until 2023. Both LA and Ottawa have buyout money in him.

 

[The Iceman]

Has he still been getting paid by somebody? I had figured he was already retired.

I am not sure I was more suprised at his retirement announcement, or that he wasn't already retired

 

[diehardleafsfan9878]

He was bought out by the LA Kings in 2019.
I believe they still pay the remaining portion until 2023. Both LA and Ottawa have buyout money in him.

Not anymore. After players retire they forfeit whatever is left owing to them. Unless the last contract they signed was signed after they turned 35. 35+ contracts are paid out fully. He's giving up about 1 million retiring now.

 

[Morbo]

honoured for what?

 

[NastyKnies]

honoured for what?

Oh IDK maybe he was the captain for 6 years.

 

[NastyKnies]

Loved Dion guy played hard.

 

[Menzinger]

Dion didn't build those awful Burke/Nonis teams. He was also always front and centre at the camera ready to take the heat when the team wasn't doing well.

I'm happy the team is doing this for him

 

[Judas Tavares]

I'm glad this is being done. It's not like his number is being retired or anything. Nice gesture overall and is deserved having been captain for as long as he was.

 

[Apex Predator]

IT’S A DOUBLE DION!!!!

 

[capfit9]

of Burke and Nonis

Are Burke & Nonis being honoured ? No.

Phaneuf was part of the failure. They had to give him away to Ottawa plus let's not forget Salute Gate, the fans did not exactly get much respect from him.

 

[saffronleaf]

glad to see. will watch the pre-game tonight.

times were turbulent when he was here, but he was a good guy and gave it his best.

 

[saffronleaf]

Beat of luck to Dion. Will always maintain he and Kessel got way too much hate here. It's not their fault the management group was completely garbage and built a team around them. They are great support pieces.

yup, and it's no surprise that many of those pieces went on to achieve great things, like kessel and bozak. even dion had a great memorable run with the sens.

 

[Gabriel426]

Team failure is not on Dion b/c he didn't build the team, he just played and the team sucked.

Wasn't he the Capt during the salute gate incident?
How can you honor someone who disrespect the fans.

 

[BodaciousBeefBazooka]

His brow bone alone deserves to be honoured on the Jumbotron too

 

[A1LeafNation]

So we saluting him or not?