Dion Phaneuf officially retires, says his biggest regret is “Salute-gate”
Dion Phaneuf is officially retiring from hockey, over two years after his most recent NHL game.
The 36-year-old made the announcement in an interview with The Toronto Sun on Tuesday in which he said he was proud of his career.
“I’m proud to be the guy who dreamt about playing in the NHL when I was skating on the outdoor rink growing up in Edmonton,” Phaneuf said. “You look back at everything at a time like this. I owe a lot to Brent Sutter for teaching me in junior how to be a pro. I owe a lot to some of the unbelievable teammates I had, like Jarome Iginla.”
Phaneuf was selected by the Calgary Flames with the ninth-over pick in the 2003 NHL draft. He broke into the league a couple of years later with a 20-goal rookie season, resulting in a third-place finish for the Calder Trophy behind Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby.
A big, tough, physical rock with a booming shot, Phaneuf established himself as a star defender early in his career. In 2007-08, Phaneuf scored 60 points for the Flames and finished second in Norris Trophy voting behind Nicklas Lidstrom.
Phaneuf was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs in a seven-player blockbuster deal in January 2010. Under one year later, at just 25 years of age, Phaneuf was named Toronto’s captain, a role he would take for 397 games over parts of six seasons.
Phaneuf captained the Leafs during a tumultuous period in their history. The team made the playoffs just once during Phaneuf’s time in Toronto, during the lockout-shortened 2013 season. That run infamously ended when Toronto blew a 4-1 lead in the third period of Game 7 to the Boston Bruins.
While Phaneuf looks back and thinks about “What if?” when it comes to the blown lead in Boston, he said that the biggest regret of his career came a year later.
In November of 2014, the Leafs got hammered at home by the Nashville Predators by a score of 9-2, one of the most lopsided losses in Air Canada Centre/Scotiabank Arena history. The team rebounded a couple of nights later with a 5-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning, but opted not to salute the fans, which had been a long-standing tradition in Toronto.
“That still bothers me,” said Phaneuf in a wide-ranging interview. “I was the captain. I didn’t handle that well. I should have been better. I needed to be. I take responsibility for that. If I could ever have a do-over, that’s the one I’d want. That’s the one I’ve thought about a lot.”
Phaneuf would wind up getting traded to the Ottawa Senators in February 2016, right as the Leafs were on the cusp of turning things around with their young core. Phaneuf helped the Sens reach the Eastern Conference Final in 2017 and eventually finished off his playing days as a member of the Los Angeles Kings.
He currently resides in L.A. and hopes to eventually find a job working in hockey.
The Maple Leafs will honor Phaneuf on Tuesday night before their game with the Predators.
While he might not have been the elite defender Brian Burke had hoped for when he made that trade with the Flames, Phaneuf can take pride in how well he handled the incredibly high-pressure role of being the captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
“I wish we had had more success here,” he said. “I take responsibility for that. I was honored to be captain. I left everything I had out there.”