D ave Nonis had his incognito act all figured out. Or so he thought.

There he was in late January, Calgary Flames hat on head and pulled low, sitting in the seats at the Saddledome rather than in the press box with other scouts and executives.

He just wanted to look like a garden-variety Flames fan and it worked perfectly, until he realized he was sitting adjacent to the "Best Seats in the House" promotion. When they showed the lucky winners on the giant video screen, there was the Maple Leafs' director of hockey operations as large as life for the hockey world to see.

Wearing a Flames cap.

Actually, it worked out fine. Nonis was there undercover to get a close-up view of Dion Phaneuf as the Leafs and Flames were in the final stages of negotiating a massive seven-player swap that was consummated Jan. 31. Before the deal was made, GM Brian Burke wanted Nonis, his trusted right-hand man, to assess whether there was a flaw in the erratic Phaneuf's game so enormous a trade would be inadvisable.

Nonis's response? Most of Phaneuf's errors were errors of commission made trying to make something positive happen. So the Leafs made the deal.

Almost two months into the Phaneuf era, one that seems almost certain to continue with the 24-year-old being named captain next fall, it's fair to say the Leafs would make the deal again any day, and twice on Sundays.

Phaneuf hasn't been a spectacular success, and still is looking for his first goal. The Leafs are 10-7-1 with him. The Flames are 10-8-1 without him, a stat that suggests neither club has benefited more than the other from the swap so far.

That said, it's hard to find a hockey person who thinks this was anything but a peculiar, one-sided deal. You could argue that the Leafs haven't missed and won't miss any of the four players sent to the Flames – Ian White, Matt Stajan, Jamal Mayers and Niklas Hagman – while Phaneuf has been a godsend, a blue-line stud who has played more than 25 minutes in each of the club's last nine games.

As mentioned, the offensive game hasn't materialized, and while Phaneuf once scored 20 goals in an NHL season, it may be unrealistic to imagine he'll get near that total again. What he does have is gobs and gobs of presence, and a coach in Ron Wilson who is head over heels for the way in which Phaneuf has altered the mood in the Leaf dressing room.

The Flames' record since the deal isn't awful but they've lost ground to Detroit in the battle for the final Western Conference playoff berth. Between them, the four ex-Leafs have contributed seven goals and 27 assists in 19 games, while Stajan (three goals, nine assists) has already been rewarded with a new four-year, $14 million contract (all figures U.S.).

Collectively, the quartet has had a negligible impact on a Flames team that had a better winning percentage before the big trade. Financially, White could triple his $950,000 salary this summer as a restricted free agent, while Hagman, if he gets back to scoring the way he was before being dealt, is a reasonable bargain at $3 million per season.

Mayers is unrestricted in July and his future is unclear. But by next season Stajan, White and Hagman will probably come with a collective cap hit of at least $9 million, much more than Phaneuf's annual $6.5 million cap number.

Phaneuf, meanwhile, seems likely to get an invitation from Mark Messier to be part of Canada's entry in the world championships scheduled to be played in the German cities of Cologne, Mannheim and Gelsenkirchen in May. After being left off the Vancouver Olympic team, this could be a valuable opportunity for him to get back into the Hockey Canada mix and play internationally for the first time since playing at the worlds in '07.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

It might delay his retreat to his P.E.I. cottage for a few weeks. But the Leafs want him to keep developing as a player and a leader, and this would assist in that.

If it does, this could prove to be a wildly lopsided trade in the Leafs' favour.

Read more about: