SPORTS LANDSCAPE SHAKEN
Phaneuf trade a stunner for Sens, Harris is a big deal for Redblacks
A tremor measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale shook Ottawa sometime around 11 a.m. on Tuesday. A couple of hours later, the ground had barely stopped shaking when another quake struck.
Dion Phaneuf to the Senators. Pow! Then Trevor Harris to the Redblacks. Bam!
Quite a 1-2 punch, something that jolted Ottawa’s hockey and football fans.
So Phaneuf, eh? Two words. Unlikely. Stunning. Sens fans hate the Leafs and vice-versa, right? And now the guy who had probably morphed into Public Enemy No. 1 from the lowly blue and white boys is a Senator?
When the news broke in social media circles, it seemed a ruse — maybe somebody had broken into a Twitter account and made up the trade, laughing in his mom’s basement while Ottawa sports fans’ eyeballs were popping out.
But no, it was real, very real. Senators and Leafs fans could spend years dissecting the pluses and minuses of the deal — something that, from a Toronto perspective, had to be as much about shedding five more years of a $7-million salary cap hit as it was about adding future talent.
From an Ottawa perspective, it was about adding a captain, another veteran voice to their room. It was also about adding a defenceman who could lend a steadying presence to their back end, a guy who has played first-pairing minutes in the past and will likely settle into less-pressured second-pairing minutes in Ottawa, a role he had been more successful at in Toronto this season. Is a third or fourth defenceman who will be in his mid-30s when his contract expires worthy of such a stout cap hit? The Senators can’t know that, but they’re gambling that the now is worth the risk.
And since we all talk a big game while tapping out tweets on our smartphones, the con- sensus is that this is also about the subtraction for the Senators — that losing the cumbersome contracts of whipping boy Jared Cowen (a $3.1-million cap hit next season), Milan Michalek and Colin Greening is worth just about any return. The Senators also received Cody Donaghey, Casey Bailey, Matt Frattin and Ryan Rupert — all players on the periphery — while the big return for the Leafs may be prospect Tobias Lindberg and a 2017 second-round draft pick.
There will be Sens fans who love the trade and others who hate it — in disbelief that the Senators would ever put a uniform on freaking Phaneuf. Today, the Senators are a better team. But tomorrow and beyond?
Across town, the Redblacks also had a Plan A on the opening day of CFL agency. And that plan was to sign somebody who could take the snaps when quarterback Henry Burris decides to sit back in his rocking chair and stop slinging footballs. That’s likely a year from now. But it was important for the Redblacks to find a successor. Harris is that guy ... we think. With Ricky Ray injured for much of the 2015 season, Harris, getting an opportunity to be The Man, came through big, playing like an all-star at times for the Toronto Argos. He threw for 4,354 yards and 33 TD passes with a receiving corps that wasn’t as good as Ottawa’s.
Signing Harris was a big, bold move for the Redblacks, who showed they weren’t afraid to make a free-agent splash a year ago with the signing of receivers Greg Ellingson, Brad Sinopoli, Chris Williams and offensive lineman Sir Vincent Rogers.
As the Senators try to string some wins together and push toward a playoff position, hoping Phaneuf can calm down a defence that on too many nights plays like it has ants in its pants, the Redblacks believe they have their future in place.
Feb. 9 will go down as a memorable one, a day where the earth shook for the Ottawa sports scene. Two players. Two teams. Difference makers? We’ll see.