Toronto Maple Leafs: Please Appreciate Jake Gardiner

Toronto Maple Leafs fans need to appreciate Jake Gardiner.

Last season was a strong one for Gardiner. In 82 games played, he registered 5 goals, 47 assists, 15 PP, 22:32 ATOI, 39 takeaways, 103 blocks and a 50.7 corsi-for percentage. Plus, in the defensive zone, he was the best Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman. Per a post from James Tanner, Gardiner allowed the least amount of goals and shots compared to rest of the Maple Leafs defensive core.

Sure, he’s not bringing home a Norris trophy, but he was a strong defenseman for the Toronto Maple Leafs. The issue is that his play in the defensive and neutral zone isn’t always pretty. He can get clumsy with the puck and cause giveaways. Last season, Gardiner had 105 giveaways.

Let’s compare Gardiner’s giveaways stats to a few of the league’s top defensemen. Erik Karlsson of the Ottawa Senators had 86 giveaways in 71 games played last year. Kris Letang of the Pittsburgh Penguins had 89 giveaways in 79 games played last year. John Klingberg of the Dallas Stars had 93 giveaways in 82 games played. P.K. Subban of the Nashville Predators had 97 giveaways in 82 games played. Last but not least, Dustin Byfuglien of the Winnipeg Jets had 79 giveaways in 69 games played.

As you can see from the stats that I pulled from hockey-reference.com, giveaways shouldn’t determine how much of an impact an offensive defenseman is to a team. At the end of the day, any offense defenseman will give up the pick. It’s inevitable.

Maybe A New Pairing?

Leafs Nation would complain about Gardiner a lot less if Nikita Zaitsev wasn’t paired with him.

In the below tweet, I used Ryan Stimson’s Player Traits and Performance Comparison Tool. This tool takes data from Corsica Hockey and then throws the data into variables. For example, the tool looks at variables including shot suppression per 60 min relative to teammates, percentage of on-ice shots that a player contributes to and more.

If you look at the above tweet, you’ll see the comparison of Gardiner and Zaitsev’s 2017-18 data. For every single variable listed except for shot/assists across the slot or behind the net, Gardiner performed better than Zaitsev.

If you prefer looking at Zaitsev’s corsi-for percentage, its lower than Gardiner’s. In 60 games played, Zaitsev owned a 47.5%.

In addition, if you still believe that giveaways determine how good a defenseman is than you won’t like the number I’m about to show you.

Zaitsev had 76 giveaways in 60 games.

Next: Toronto Maple Leafs Draft Analysis Roundtable

At the end of the day, enough is enough. The contract that Zaitsev is signed to scares me. Per capfriendly.com, he’s under contract till 2023-24 with a 4.5 million USD cap hit. In addition, he has a no trade clause which kicks in 2019-20. It’s time to move on from Zaitsev now. Kyle Dubas should be working the phones to find him a new home. I’d rather trade him now while he doesn’t have a no trade clause. It’ll be ten times easier than next year when you’d have to ask him where he wouldn’t mind being dealt to.

Jake Gardiner is a great player.  The stats say he’s a top pairing defenseman who is great at defense.  He deserves far more love than he gets.

stats from NHL.com, hockey-reference.com, corsica-hockey, Ryan Stimson’s Player Traits and Performance Comparison Tool, research from capfriendly.com