Tuesday Afterschool Special: NHL Trade Market Heats Up

Leafs trade caption Dion Phaneuf to the Sens

The Maple Leafs have traded their captain, defenseman Dion Phaneuf, to the Senators as part of a nine-player trade. The full trade is: Phaneuf, Matt Frattin, Casey Bailey, Ryan Rupert and Cody Donaghey for Jared Cowen, Colin Greening, Milan Michalek, Tobias Lindberg, and the Senators’ second-round pick in 2017. Did you get all that?

The important thing is the Senators upgrade at defense by replacing Cowen with Phaneuf, while the Leafs get some futures and cap space to help with their rebuild.

A good excuse to post "Double Dion"

Byfuglien re-signs

The Winnipeg Jets re-signed defenseman Dustin Byfuglien to a five-year, $38 million contract yesterday. With the Jets slipping out of playoff contention, there was speculation that they would look to trade the big blueliner. But the player returned for a contract that will pay him an average salary of $7.6 million, the third-highest cap hit for a defenseman behind P.K. Subban and Shea Weber. 

Byfuglien started his career with the Chicago Blackhawks and was on their 2010 Stanley Cup-winning team, before being traded to the Atlanta Thrashers that offseason (the Thrashers moved to Winnipeg to become the new Jets). Playing both defense and right wing, he has 148 goals and 228 assists for his career.

His teammates sure seemed happy to have him back:

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