SIMMONS: Former Maple Leafs captain Dion Phaneuf officially retires, ‘proud’ of his career

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If Dion Phaneuf could go back in time and change just one thing, a personal night in his career, it would be the controversial Salute-Gate setting in November 2014.

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The game where the Maple Leafs apparently gave the Leafs Nation the collective middle finger instead of raising their sticks with the usual post-game respect.

“That still bothers me,” Phaneuf said in a lengthy interview. “I was the captain. I didn’t handle it well. Should have been better. It needed to be. I take responsibility for that. If I could ever have a replay, that’s the one I would want. That’s the one I’ve thought about a lot. “

Phaneuf has been thinking a lot in recent months about his career, internalizing, reflecting on his 14 NHL seasons, realizing how lucky he was to play as much as he did, as well as he did. That’s what players do when they are about to make an important decision. They look back. They seek perspective.

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On Tuesday morning, more than two years after he played his last game in Los Angeles, Phaneuf will officially announce his retirement from hockey. Not that anyone expected him to return, he just needed time and thought to determine that that was it.

The Maple Leafs seem to agree. Before Tuesday’s game with the Nashville Predators, the Leafs will honor their lifelong captain in a pregame ceremony that might surprise some fans. The current head office, especially team president Brendan Shanahan, has a certain fondness for Phaneuf, who was the team captain for many challenging seasons.

What most fans wouldn’t consider: He had the ‘C’ on his jersey for 397 games, more than Wendel Clark or Doug Gilmour, more games as captain than Syl Apps or Ted Kennedy, more than John Tavares, Rick Vaive or Rob . Ramage.

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And in his time in Toronto, while he was never the breakthrough superstar Brian Burke envisioned him to be when he was brought in from Calgary, Phaneuf played more than 24 minutes per game throughout his tenure with the Leafs for parts of seven seasons. Phaneuf broke into the NHL scoring 20 defensive goals for the Flames, finishing third in the rookie of the year vote behind Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby. He never matched that goal total again.

“I’ve been thinking a lot,” Phaneuf said. “I am proud of my career. I’m proud to be the kid who dreamed of playing in the NHL when he skated on the outdoor rink growing up in Edmonton. 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 amazing teammates I had, like Jarome Iginla.

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“You look back and think of all the people who did so much for you. The trainers. Your teammates. The training staff. Equipment staff. The team’s service managers. “

This is the closest Phaneuf will get to his own Hall of Fame speech.

He can’t get Salute-gate back, as much as he would like to, and some of the best moments and memories of his career intersect with some of the biggest disappointments. At Toronto in 2014, he was part of the strongest Maple Leafs playoff series in the past 15 years. The Leafs were 10 minutes away from defeating the Boston Bruins, eventual Stanley Cup finalists.

The collapse, in a Game 7 in which the Leafs led 4-1 in the third only to lose 5-4 in overtime, is now legendary.

“We played a great series against a great team,” Phaneuf said. “Looking back, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve played ‘What if?’ with that. We were there. We had them. That was the lowest point in any team loss that I can remember. “

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Then he remembered another amazing achievement, another amazing disappointment. He was playing for the Ottawa Senators in 2017. They were playing Pittsburgh in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals. The Sens lost in double overtime. The penguins won the Cup.

“You can’t help thinking about that,” he said. “You always want to win a championship. I am disappointed that I could never win, but I am proud of the player that I was. Proud to have played more than a thousand games ”.

In Toronto, while Phaneuf often appeared to be a square peg trying to fit into a round hole, doing his best to captain the Leafs, lead the team, play at a very high level, indoors, where the fans don’t. they do. take a look, it was considered invaluable.

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No rookie went on tour without a dinner invitation from Phaneuf. No young player ever collected a check when he was present.

In boot camp, when lunch is served, it can be a bit like high school. Cool kids sit with cool kids. Veterans sit together. The Russians sit together. The Swedes sit together. And rookies and hopefuls often get together.

Many days, Phaneuf was eating with the rookies and the hopefuls. Making sure they were taken care of, like Iginla or Daymond Langkow or Bryan Marchment took care of him in Calgary.

“You get on a bus, you get on a plane, you don’t know anything, you come from youth hockey. These guys helped me a lot. “

But the conversation with him always returns to the Leafs, where he played more games than any of his other three teams. Playing in Toronto meant a lot to Phaneuf. Be at Hockey Night in Canada every Saturday night.

“Those games with Montreal or Ottawa on a Saturday night, they just make me smile,” said Phaneuf, who lives in suburban Los Angeles with his actress wife, Elisha Cuthbert, and their young daughter. He still hopes to work in hockey one day.

“I wish we had been more successful here,” he said. “I take responsibility for that. I had the honor of being a captain. I left everything I had out there. “

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