Right now there's no question, Phaneuf is the better dman. He's NHL ready. At 20, that's impressive for a dman.
It's also not fair to compare Bourdon, who was just drafted, to a 20 YO Phaneuf.
At the same age, how different were they?
Right after Phaneuf was drafted (3rd dman taken in his draft, 9th overall), he wasn't much different than Bourdon (3rd dman taken, 10th overall).
Both were considered future top pairing talent.
Bourdon, since being drafted, has come into the canucks camp, and almost won a job. Played hard, hit hard, showed an offensive game as well... his stock no doubt has gone up at least a little since he was drafted.
Is that all that different than Phaneuf, right after his draft year? how did he look in his first camp?
When Bourdon's 20, and challenging for a spot on the canucks lineup, it's a better comparison to what Phaneuf is like now - a talented 20 YO rookie damn.
right now though, Bourdon is 2 yrs behind in development. The way he's played so far, I'm confident that we'll be seeing as much potential from him as the Flames are getting from Phaneuf right now. Bourdon should be in the canucks lineup in 2 yrs fulltime... a few years of development and he should be a ready for a top pairing role. Which puts him IMO, in a similar development path to Phaneuf.
Who knows what either prospect will be like in 5 yrs... or who will be better in their prime... all we know now is that they're both talented, and at this stage at least, Phaneuf is at a level that Bourdon will have to work hard to get to... so far he's shown no reason to doubt that he can.