Leafs' captain Phaneuf relishes new role

Hockey Betting Lines

06/15/2010 - Toronto, Canada (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - For the first time in two seasons, the Toronto Maple Leafs have a captain and his name is Dion Phaneuf.

The former Calgary Flames defenseman was bestowed the captaincy of the historic franchise at a media conference yesterday, one that doubled as a debut for new uniforms the players will be sporting when the puck drops next season.

With the honor, Phaneuf became the 18th player in history to wear the "C" for the blue and white, and the first since Mats Sundin gave up his 11-year grasp on the title in 2008.

The 25-year-old Phaneuf spoke with pride while sharing the stage with Leaf royalty, as former captains George Armstrong, Darryl Sittler and Wendel Clark watched on.

"With this new responsibility, my plan is to be myself," said Phaneuf, reading from a prepared statement. "I want to lead on and off the ice. Above all else the team and winning hockey games will be front and center. We have a lot of work to do, but we will work hard together, everyone is ready to work hard and get better as a team. I am confident and welcome my role in seeing that happen."

General Manager Brian Burke, who received much criticism over the past two seasons for not naming a captain, believes it was worth the wait.

"We never felt that we needed a captain, we felt that we needed to wait until we had the right person to come in and fulfill that role," said Burke. "This is one of the greatest franchises in the history of professional sports on this planet and we wanted to make sure today that we put the "C" on someone that would live up to that."

Burke stressed that the decision was always in the hands of head coach Ron Wilson, but said Phaneuf was the player he had in mind for the role when trading for the former Norris Trophy finalist earlier in the year.

"If I had been asked, this is the player that I would have begged Ronnie to name as the next Captain," said Burke.

While Phaneuf was a natural choice for Wilson as well, he pointed to his coaching days in San Jose as a determining factor that helped him come to his final decision.

"I had the pleasure of coaching against Dion when I was with San Jose and we thought right off the bat that he was a remarkable talent and getting better every year," said Wilson. "He's someone who plays with passion, comes to the rink every day and works harder than anybody."

Critics of the move will point to the rumored relationship issues between Phaneuf and some of his old Flames teammates as reasons for worry, but as Burke sees it, it was a case of there being too many alpha dogs in one room.

With veterans like Jarome Iginla and Robyn Regehr leading the team in Calgary, there wasn't room for another strong-willed individual to take charge.

In the Leafs dressing room no such challenge existed and last year Phaneuf took full advantage.

"The atmosphere changed to where Dion started challenging people the day he got here, we need loud music, we need to call for passes in practice. He started changing the culture within seconds after he got into the dressing the room," Burke said.

"The young players that talked to me about it said this is a guy who saw a leadership vacuum and leaped into it and filled it."

With the Leafs being such a young team, Phaneuf's role in setting the tone for youngsters like Tyler Bozak, Nazim Kadri, and Luke Schenn will be an important one.

If one player benefited immediately from the trade last year it was fellow blue liner Schenn, who saw the pressure to perform in his sophomore season lifted when Phaneuf came in.

When asked if there were parts of Phaneuf's game he could learn from, Schenn said there was a lot to look up too.

"He's good in all areas of the ice, you can learn a lot from him," the defenseman said. "His physicality, how he makes the forwards on the other team pay the price when he's on the ice and also his ability to shoot the puck, and also his intensity."

It's that intensity the organization hopes will filter down through a team that has been described in previous years as being entitled, a condition that Burke has publicly described as "blue and white disease."

It's a sickness he's been fighting since he arrived in the city.

If there is one thing that Leaf fans can be sure of, it's that the team will look like winners when they take the ice in the fall.

The boys in blue and white will sport a different look this year with a jersey that's a throwback to 1993. With horizontal stripes at the bottom of the sweater and a shoulder patch depicting an older version of the Leaf logo, it is a sweater that Burke said "Marks a return to our roots."

Hopefully, for the sake of Leafs' Nation, a return to their winning roots is in the cards as well.