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BRIDGESTONE NHL WINTER CLASSIC: MAPLE LEAFS v RED WINGSDecember 31, 2013Dave NonisDion PhaneufDETROIT, MICHIGAN PAT PARK: I'm Pat Park, director of media relations for the Maple Leafs. Thanks for joining us at today's surprise announcement. We're going to have formal remarks from both Dave and Dion at the podium, and then they'll reconvene with one‑on‑ones. With that, I'd like to turn it over to Dave at the podium. DAVE NONIS: First I'd like to reiterate what pat just said. Thanks for coming. I know it's a busy time with the game tomorrow and all the preparations, so thank you very much for making the time to come. We are very happy to announce today that Dion has agreed to a seven‑year extension beginning next year with the Toronto Maple Leafs. It was something that picked up a little bit of steam about a month ago. Dion was very good at the start of the season about not putting any pressure. He said I know there are lots of things happening. He said I'm prepared to play the year. If you want to come to me in a month, two months whatever it might be, we'll look to negotiate when the time is right for the club, and at no time did Dion ever say I need to get something done. I think to his credit, you look at how he played the start of the season, and it was like a player that wasn't bothered by contract negotiations, that's for sure. Since Dion came into the league, I think you look at his numbers and what he's done since he was a rookie, and they stack up very favorably with the top defensemen in the league today. We feel that his game is getting better, and he's a player that we can build around and add to and try to keep this team moving forward to become a contender. So, again, we're thrilled to have him signed, and we're looking forward to moving ahead with him and the other players we have signed to longer term deals. So I'll pass it over to Dion and happy to answer anything at the end. DION PHANEUF: Hi, guys. Thank you, everyone for coming. I'd like to start by thanking Larry Tannenbaum, the board of directors, Tim Leiweke, Dave Nonis, Dave Bolland, and Claude Loiselle for signing me to this contract. I'd also like to thank my agent, Donnie Meehan, Craig Oster, and everyone at Newport Sports. Today is a very exciting day for me and my family. I'm very fortunate to have my family here this week with me to celebrate, obviously the Winter Classic and with this great news. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all my teammates for their hard work and dedication. I can't say enough about them. We have a great group of guys here, and I look forward to winning with them. Thank you to our coaching staff and trainers for everything. It's just such an exciting day for me personally to be able to sign this contract with the Winter Classic. It's just an unbelievable thing for me to be able to do it and to do it here. Thank you, guys. Q. Dave, you now have a pretty significant amount of money for guys tied up here with five years and beyond. How far do you feel this core is from being a contender? DAVE NONIS: Well, there are a couple things you need is players to play around the core. You see some of the best players in the league, and if you put them on a team by themselves they'll have a hard time winning, but we think we're adding pieces that will help us win. One of the things that I've always felt is you need flexibility, so you want to make sure that there are options in terms of changing that core if need be. We've added these pieces because we think that they can help us win long‑term. It's now going to be up to us to continue to add players around them. We feel we have some pieces coming, but we're not where we need to be at. We still need to add some pieces around players like Dion, Phil, Lupul, JVR. Those are players that are good players that will help any team in this league win, but we need to continue to add to that group. Q. Dion, is your game evolved from the first five years in Calgary to what you've done now in the four plus years with the Maple Leafs? DION PHANEUF: Yeah, I definitely feel that my game has grown with experience and playing in the league. You grow as a player, and I've learned a lot of things over my time since I've started, and I feel I'm a better player today than I definitely was when I started and in my time in Calgary, that's for sure. Q. Dave, one of the things, do you feel you're taking a little bit of a risk in the term of this deal, especially at the back end, 7 years? Or is that just what you have to do to stay in the market of the NHL these days? DAVE NONIS: Well, there are two ways to look at that. First of all, Dion was going to get seven years regardless. If we weren't going to pay him, he's going to get it. He's also not 32 years old or 33. If you go back last year and year before we're seeing some defensemen in their mid to late 30s getting four‑ and five‑year deals. So from our standpoint, it wasn't that Dion can't play longer. He was eligible for an 8th year. We could have signed him to an 8th year. I think he'll play beyond the term of his contract. He's not in his 30s. He's in his 20s. His game is rounding out and it's getting better. I don't think there's any reason why he can't play the seven years and then look for another contract. Q. Part of this contract needing to sign Dion, doesn't matter what the length is, it's hard to imagine this team without him or is maybe the possibility of not having anyone to do the roles he does on this team and to have him locked up long‑term? DAVE NONIS: No, because if you're signing players because you don't have anyone to replace them, you're making mistakes. We signed Dion to this deal because he deserved it. He's going to play at this level or beyond, I feel, for seven years, again, maybe beyond that. It's not that you don't have anyone to replace Dion, it's that he's done enough to prove to us that he is a player that is near the top of the league in terms of how he stacks up against the top defensemen. You look at his numbers and people love looking at numbers these days. I would tell people to look at them. Look at where he stacks up for minutes played, points, who he plays against. He's done a lot of good things for us. So he's earned this contract. It's not that we don't have anyone to replace him. I think if that's why we were signing him, we'd be making a mistake. Q. Dion, obviously, the goal for you is to bring a championship back to Toronto within the next seven years, at least one. What makes you believe that that can happen? DION PHANEUF: Well, that's a big reason why I've re‑signed is because I believe in the group that we have and the pieces that we have in place. Obviously, we're going to add pieces to our group, but I believe in the group that we have. It's an exciting team to be a part of. We've grown a lot together, and there is obviously room to grow. That's why I re‑signed in Toronto. My goal is to win a championship here, and we've got some pieces in place, and I'm really looking forward to continuing the next seven years in Toronto. Q. Has there been a transformation to where you are now, and how much do you look forward to continuing to maintain that? DION PHANEUF: It's an honor to be a captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs with the history of the organization. I've said it many times. I've definitely grown into the role and I've learned a lot. I'd be lying if I sat up here and said I can't. I'm very comfortable in the role. It's an honor to be the captain of such a storied franchise, but I've definitely learned a lot, and I feel that I've grown as the leader of our team. Q. As Dave said at the start, he said he didn't think you looked like a player that was playing worried about a contract early in the season. How were you able to separate the two in a way? DION PHANEUF: Well, I answered it earlier. I was asked about it during training camp. And I've been open to whenever it was asked during the season, besides getting into details of the negotiation of where we were at, I had no issue talking about it and I had no issue negotiating during the season. I stated that during the start of the year, and the business was taken care of on the outside. My main focus was to play as well as I could for our team to give ourselves the best opportunity of winning games. I felt I did a good job of keeping it on the outside. It was a very good negotiation. It went very smooth, and for me, obviously, it was a little bit of a bad‑kept secret at the end of it. But for me, it was a smooth process. But my focus was focusing on playing the game, and I feel that I did a good job of that. Q. How story book is this to have a seven‑year deal and know that the next game you're going to play there will be 100‑thousand‑plus people watching you? DION PHANEUF: Just when I drove up to the building, I got chills coming into the building. You grow up playing on outdoor rinks as a kid. And to be able to come here and, obviously, with this news being announced, to have my family, my parents here, my mom, dad, my brother, my wife, it's going to be a special game to be a part of. I'm really looking forward to stepping out there not only today to practice but tomorrow when there are 110,000 people. It's going to be an experience I'll never forget as a player. Q. Obviously, when you make this kind of decision, probably the biggest in your career, you look at all your possibilities and you wanted to resign. That was your priority. But for sure obviously Newport would have told you what the market looked like. How much thought did you look at the other avenues in case things didn't go well? DION PHANEUF: To be completely honest with you, you do have meetings about if it does go the other way. But it was an easy decision for me to stay here and be part of the Toronto Maple Leafs. I really believe that we're building something special. I believe that we've grown since the time I've been here till now was night and day. It was an easy decision for me and one that is a very big decision, and one that I'm very happy with in the way that I chose to go. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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