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Lots of Confusion over Phaneuf Deal as Deadline Looms

By Justin Fisher

Mar 2, 2015, 12:56 ESTUpdated:

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Here’s what we know when it comes to a potential Dion Phaneuf deal.

Detroit and two unnamed Western Conference teams are at the very least interested in Phaneuf’s services.
The Red Wings appear to be the front runner, but want the Toronto Maple Leafs to retain as much as $2M of Phaneuf’s salary for the remaining six years of the deal.
As it stands right now, Detroit doesn’t like the Leafs’ high asking price.

Earlier, we saw that TSN and Sportsnet were putting out very different reports on the likelihood of Phaneuf being dealt today. Now, ESPN and TVA Sports is jumping into the conversation. More past the jump…

So there you have it. The deal is dead as dead can be. Also, it’s not!

Now to be fair, Renaud Lavoie’s tweet makes no mention of the Detroit Red Wings, so it’s possible that both of these reports are accurate – Detroit is out, but Toronto is still talking to other teams on Phaneuf and could retain salary.

And you know what? Retaining salary, especially $2M per season, is a bad idea.

Stay tuned. We’ll have closure on this in two hours’ time (or less).