PSU’s Bailey part of 9-player trade between Maple Leafs, Senators
General manager Lou Lamoriello plans to exhaust the alphabet from A to Z to improve the Toronto Maple Leafs. His latest move was trading the man who has worn the "C'' on his chest for the past six seasons.
The Maple Leafs dealt their captain and highest-paid defenseman, Dion Phaneuf, to the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday in a nine-player trade that will clear plenty of salary-cap space in the years to come. The Senators sent defenseman Jared Cowen, forwards Milan Michalek, Colin Greening and Tobias Lindberg and a second-round pick in the 2017 draft to Toronto for Phaneuf, forwards Matt Frattin, former Penn State standout Casey Bailey and Ryan Rupert, and defensive prospect Cody Donaghey.
Bailey left Penn State after his junior season and scored one goal in six games at the tail end of last season with Toronto. He spent all of this season with the team’s AHL affiliate Toronto Marlies, with four goals and 14 assists in 38 games.
No salary was retained by either team. Phaneuf and the remaining five years of his contract at a cap hit of $7 million now belong to the playoff-minded Senators, and the Leafs get to press on with their rebuilding project.
"This was a transaction that certainly wasn't for today," Lamoriello said on a conference call with reporters. "The length of Dion's contract and the amount of cap space that is there, and where that would put us at a given time ... this gives us the opportunity to do things."
Things, perhaps, like being aggressive in free agency this summer. Trading Phaneuf will do nothing to quiet speculation about the Maple Leafs' possible pursuit of Steven Stamkos, the Toronto-area native who can be an unrestricted free agent this summer if he doesn't agree to an extension with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
In case Stamkos makes it to the open market July 1, not only will there be cap space available but Toronto's captaincy. Lamoriello said he and coach Mike Babcock agreed to use alternates the rest of this season.
In Ottawa, the 30-year-old Phaneuf won't have the pressure of being captain or the expectation of being a top-pairing defenseman. Two-time Norris Trophy-winner Erik Karlsson fits the bill there.
"We don't expect him to come in and be a savior," general manager Bryan Murray told reporters at a news conference in Ottawa. "We expect him to come in here and just be the hockey player he is."
This story was originally published February 9, 2016 at 9:45 PM with the headline "PSU’s Bailey part of 9-player trade between Maple Leafs, Senators."