A very different Dion Phaneuf will take centre stage in his homecoming game on Thursday in Calgary.
Dion Phaneuf isn't the same guy he was when he was a Calgary Flame. So it probably figures that the Flames have never been quite the same team after his departure either.
With Phaneuf set to make his first return to the Saddledome as a Toronto Maple Leaf, the final returns are also trickling in on the January trade that landed Phaneuf as the Leafs captain.
Viewers can watch the game on Sportsnet Flames, live tonight 7:30 p.m. MT.
The seven-player deal appears irretrievable for a Flames organization that was fleeced by Leafs GM Brian Burke, then compounded the damage by signing Matt Stajan long-term. Like him or not, Phaneuf is the best player in a deal that seems heavily-tilted towards Toronto - especially with 6-foot-5, 21-year-old defenceman Keith Aulie percolating on the back burner for Toronto.
- On Jan. 31, GMs Brian Burke and Darryl Sutter pulled the trigger on a blockbuster deal.
- - To Toronto: Keith Aulie, D Dion Phaneuf, D Fredrik Sjostrom, F
- - To Calgary: Niklas Hagman, F Matt Stajan, F Jamal Mayers, F (now with San Jose) Ian White, D (now with Carolina)
It is the 25-year-old Phaneuf who will always be the centerpiece of this trade, however, fitting for a player who has always been a moving target.
He can be an offensive force one minute, like on Tuesday night in Edmonton when he blasted the game's opening goal in the first period. And he can go turnstile on you, like he did only six minutes later when Jordan Eberle and Sam Gagner worked a give-and-go around Phaneuf that left him dizzy.
We've seen him fight like a demon one night, then inexplicably turn down a scrap two games later against an opponent no bigger or stronger, in a situation that begged for him to drop the gloves.
But to a reporter who simply stopped going to Phaneuf's stall in Calgary, so disinterested was he in the interview process, it is clear that he has embraced the role of captain/spokesman in Toronto with some measure of zeal. Good on him for that.
"To be completely honest, I think that was a bad stereotype out here," he insisted Tuesday in Edmonton. "I've never had a problem talking with the media, I've always done every interview that's been asked. For some reason you don't think I smile or that I don't enjoy this, but I have no issue at all."
It wasn't a bad stereotype.
Here was a kid viewed as the future of the franchise, who would start his interviews saying little and then give you less and less as it went along. He did the interviews, sure, but almost in an obstructionist fashion, so useless was the end product.
Having played his junior hockey in Red Deer for Brent Sutter, then drafted by Darryl in Calgary, you could only guess that he was following the Bros. lead in giving up as little as possible once the cameras and notepads came out.
By chance however, this reporter once spent an elongated layover at the Las Vegas airport in the company of Phaneuf, and found him to be incredibly jovial and witty. It was always in there, and now we see it more and more. As the captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs he may as well enjoy the process, as his lot is to face the scrum at least once per day, often twice.
While the media and Phaneuf warm to each other however, fans in Calgary are likely taking their love in the opposite direction.
"It should be applause," said Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke, when asked what kind of reception Phaneuf will get in Calgary Thursday night. "He didn't ask for a trade out of Calgary. Calgary thought they could make their team better, they made a trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs, and he was on an airplane. I have no idea why there would be a backlash against Dion.
"People buy their tickets, if they want to boo him they'll boo him. But I think he played some good hockey for the Calgary Flames, he never requested a trade, and he should be greeted warmly."
It was heavily rumoured, though never confirmed by a credible source, that Phaneuf had become a polarizing entity inside the Flames room. That he and Robyn Regehr, two of Darryl Sutter's building blocks, had ceased being friends long ago; and this typically far-out rumour, that he and Jarome Iginla had come to blows one day.
"It's almost pointless for me to say it, but there are so many untrue things out there it's ridiculous," Iginla said Wednesday in Calgary. "We never had any real fight ever. Horseplay, yeah. We were buddies and buddies sometimes horseplay. About the personal issues, when teams have tough games and tough seasons, you almost always have issues. Last year we didn't perform and that was an issue.
"But I'll say it again, there was never any truth to any of those rumors about Dion at all."
The first return is always the hardest. After this, the annual trek through the West will carry nothing more than a trip home for Phaneuf.
At least, that's the way it works for most National Hockey League players.
With Phaneuf, well, we just never have known, have we?
