Calgary Flames Throwback Thursday: Dion Phaneuf/Matt Stajan Trade

Welcome to another edition of Calgary Flames Throwback Thursday! Today, let’s look at a seven-player trade involving Dion Phaneuf and Matt Stajan.

Hello Calgary Flames fans and welcome to another edition of Throwback Thursday! The segment we here at Flame for Thought bring you on Thursdays about something that happened in the past, whether that was last season or 25 years ago.

Last time, we talked about the 2004 no goal incident. Today, let’s talk about something somewhat fun to look back on – a seven-player trade. In 2010 in the middle of the season, the Flames sent Dion Phaneuf to the Toronto Maple Leafs and got Matty Franchise (Matt Stajan) in return. This was part of a seven-player trade.

Phaneuf at the time was 24 years old and had an impressive rookie year a few years prior with the Flames. In his rookie season in 2005-06, he won the rookie of the month for November for having nine points, two-game winning goals, and leading all other rookie defencemen in points that month.

That season, Phaneuf recorded 20 goals which made headlines for a number of reasons. One, it was now a new Calgary Flames franchise record for most goals by a rookie defenceman. And two, at the time, he was only the third player in NHL history to have 20 goals as a rookie defenceman.

Because of this, he was a finalist for the Calder trophy – the rookie of the year award. Reminder: This was also the season where Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin were rookies.

Seems like quite some time ago, hey?

(He lost to Ovechkin).

He continued his impressive offensive abilities and was now a Flames top defenceman by the time he was 22/23 years old and was averaging over 26 minutes a night. But then the 2008-09 season came around and he somewhat took a dip. He went from 17 goals and 60 points in 82 games and a +12 rating in 2007-08 to just 11 goals and 47 points in 80 games and -11 rating the following season.

Calgary Flames

In the 2009-10 season, he was part of the seven player trade that brought Matt Stajan to Calgary on January 31st, 2010. At the time of the trade, the Flames were doing pretty decently in their season. They were 27-20-8 while the Leafs were 17-28-11.

Why this was an interesting trade is that, although there was speculation that he could be traded because of his low season and high salary, that wasn’t the only thing circulating.

Apparently there were some locker room issues with Phaneuf and the rest of the team. Nobody knows quite what the issues were. TSN’s Darren Dreger said that former Calgary Flames coach Mike Keenan said that Phaneuf was part of some dressing room issues. Flames GM at the time, Darryl Sutter, later came out and confirmed the rumours that there were issues in the locker room. But nobody ever specified what they were.

Some rumours were that Robyn Regehr tried to help him with the defensive component of the game and Phaneuf didn’t like that. And of course, there were jokes that the players didn’t like Phaneuf’s music choices in the locker room. Nobody will ever really know for sure, but that didn’t stop Flames fans from booing whenever the Leafs played in Calgary and Phaneuf had the puck.

There were also other rumours that his nickname in the locker room was “TwoTwenty”. Apparently, this is because at the time, he had only been in the NHL for two seasons but walked around as if he’d been for twenty years. There were also other reasons circulating like the fact that he weighed 220 lbs and his ego matched his weight. Again, this is all speculation.

But it’s fun.

We also have this almost fight between former Flames captain Jarome Iginla and Phaneuf. That the refs had to SO rudely interrupt.

Come on refs. You couldn’t let me have this ONE thing?

Next: Prospect Matthew Phillips Shines at WJSS

Those boos that Flames fans so generously give Phaneuf have somewhat died down since he’s been traded to the Ottawa Senators. But hey! At least the Flames got Matty Franchise in return.