Toronto Maple Leafs: Jake Gardiner Probably Gone

The Toronto Maple Leafs most used defenseman is most likely going to be on a new team next year.

Jake Gardiner, the most underrated player in the history of professional sports, is a pending unrestricted free-agent. He’s one of the best defensemen to ever wear the blue and white for the Toronto Maple Leafs, but unfortunately, his time on the team may be shorter than it should be.

As a fifty point defenseman who is among the best skaters in the NHL, Jake Gardiner is going to command a lot of money on the open market.

For the Leafs, this is going to make fitting him in under the salary cap a hard proposition, and one I’m not sure they can make.

Jake Gardiner and the Toronto Maple Leafs

With Mitch Marner, Auston Matthews, Kasperi Kapanen, Jake Gardiner and Andreas Johnson all needing new contracts next year, the Leafs are going to have to make some tough decisions.

For a team short on defense but stacked on forward, keeping their second best defenseman should be a no-brainer, but there are extenuating circumstances.

Namely, left handedness and a bunch of upcoming left handed defenseman.  The Leafs with Rielly, Gardiner and Dermott have, without a doubt, the best left-side defense in hockey.  Their right side is a tire fire, to use the only cliché that I am fond of, but the left side? She’s good.

The Leafs best right-handed prospect is supposedly nowhere near NHL ready and may not live up to the hype.  In the AHL, they’ve got Rasmus Sandin (I am told he could play in the NHL now) and Calle Rosen and Andreas Borgman (both of whom I know could play in the NHL now).

It’s obvious to anyone with eyes that Travis Dermott could handle second pairing minutes at this point of his career.

Good Player, Tough Choice

Now, Gardiner is a 50 point defenseman whose defensive impacts are way better than people who just focus on giveaways they have trained themselves to notice and remember want to admit or acknowledge, but the Leafs also happen to be absolutely stacked at his position.

Given their left-defense depth, the cost to retain Gardiner, and the fact that he’s approaching 30 makes his re-signing seem pretty unlikely.

I hope I am wrong. I am a huge Jake Gardiner fan.  His stats this year are excellent – 50.28 % CF, on pace for another 50 points, and a +19 5v5 goal differential, despite being paired mostly with the inconceivably brutal Nikita Zaitsev.

Most Toronto Maple Leafs fans don’t seem to know what they have in Gardiner, but Babcock does, and the Leafs will miss him when he’s gone.

I hope he stays, but given the rise of Travis Dermott and three other AHL left handed defenseman, it doesn’t look good.

One thing we do know: the Leafs won’t trade him. If Erik Karlsson only brought back the garbage package the Senators received for him, then Gardiner  doesn’t have any trade value. (They are both pending UFAs).

The Toronto Maple Leafs won’t give a second thought about keeping him for the  playoffs and losing him for nothing in the offseason.  Fact is, nothing they can get for him will even compare to what he can provide, so that isn’t even an option.

Gardiner is unlikely to be back next season, but he’s even less likely to get traded this season.

stats from naturalstattrick.com