Am I the only one who sees Phaneuf as overrated?

I’ll admit that I’ve only seen 25-30 games or so, but nothing I’ve witnessed thus far has lived up to the hype. Is he a complete stud during the 85% of his games I don’t watch?

Five assists in one game is nifty and all, but that’s a damned sight from making a HOF carreer. Calling him the next Scott Stevens is silly; he’s just as likely to be the next Bryan Berard.

Posted by shep from california on 12/14/07 at 08:25 PM ET

He has good offensive instincts for a defenseman, and a tremendous shot. He is big, very strong, can play lots of minutes, and at 22 years old, his still has loads of potential to improve, which is almost scary. Most defensemen take longer to reach their prime than forwards, and I’ve read it takes 5 years in the NHL for a defenseman to mature. Think about this: Chris Pronger never even scored 40 points in his first 5 NHL seasons, and now he’s getting about 60 points per season and is a much more dominant two-way force than during his first 5 years. I do think he sometimes goes out of his way to make a big hit, which can put him out of position. But Phaneuf has been given quite a lot of responsibility for such a young player, and once he fully reaches his potential, he could easily be better than Pronger is today. As for Berard, his main asset was always his skating, and his poor decision-making and lack of physical play caught up to him once he reached the NHL, where he couldn’t skate circles around the opposition. In summary, the jury’s still out on Phaneuf, but if I had to guess, he seems more on pace to be the next Scott Stevens or Chris Pronger than Bryan Berard.

Posted by Muéro on 12/14/07 at 11:36 PM ET

I should clarify, I was talking about Phaneuf when I said “he” goes out of his way to make a hit.

(Paul, any chance we could get comment editing?)

Posted by Muéro on 12/14/07 at 11:38 PM ET