Injury Report: Jake Gardiner - Now Week-to-Week

[Macallan18]

Ok I didn’t realize we were talking about last season. I can play that game too, he’s hit double digits in goals once (2013-2014) as an “elite” defensemen.

Bottom line is if he was that good management would find a way to keep him.

Well since you can’t figure it out, let me explain some things:
1 The test of being an elite defender is not predicated on goals scored, but now I see the way your mind works, you must have loved the Clarkson signing by the Leafs.
2. Gardiner is 29. In the NHL today someone will overpay him which may be ok, but the real issue is he will be given term and Dubas will not handicap this team with his declining years the way it had been handicapped by Marleau.
3. Evidence of his elite performance will the the excessive contract he will get in the summer ala JVR.
That’s it, go cheer for whoever you want, you missed recognizing one of the Leafs best d-men.

 

[Mugzy97]

what surprises me is that the leafs didn't make moves to get more depth. i've had back issues and they last for ages. i hope he gets better soon

Our LHD depth is very strong, we should be ok.

 

[A1LeafNation]

Conspiracy 1: Gardiner gets boo'ed and sits two games with a 'back injury'. Diasappointed, he asked for a trade. When the trade deadline passed and he wasn't traded, his 'back injury' flares up again.

Conspiracy 2: Gardiner was playing injured and got boo'ed because he was making soft plays due to injury. Injury came back from the Buffalo game.

Conspiracy 3: Leafs not offering him a fair contract so he is making the Leafs 'feel the pain' of him not in the line up.

 

[Daisy Jane]

Our LHD depth is very strong, we should be ok.

or we're basically where we are before muzzin. more depth is always good

 

[TheShape]

Well since you can’t figure it out, let me explain some things:
1 The test of being an elite defender is not predicated on goals scored, but now I see the way your mind works, you must have loved the Clarkson signing by the Leafs.
2. Gardiner is 29. In the NHL today someone will overpay him which may be ok, but the real issue is he will be given term and Dubas will not handicap this team with his declining years the way it had been handicapped by Marleau.
3. Evidence of his elite performance will the the excessive contract he will get in the summer ala JVR.
That’s it, go cheer for whoever you want, you missed recognizing one of the Leafs best d-men.

I’m an eye test guy and I actually couldn’t care less about the numbers. You brought them up first. Gardiner being 29 is a total copout, Rielly will be the same age when his next contract kicks in and I can gaurentee the Leafs will be re-signing Rielly when the time comes because he is legitimately elite.

 

[Mugzy97]

or we're basically where we are before muzzin. more depth is always good

Yeah pretty much lol

 

[Beyonder91]

What elite d-man has a whopping 2 goals in 60 games on the year? Burns, Giordano, Doughty, Rielly, Hedman, Josi etc these guys are elite. Gardiner is nowhere near that category and shouldn’t be labelled as such.

Gardiner is an elite skater, that’s about it. He doesn’t have an elite mind for the game. Apparently management seems to agree with me considering they never made it a priority to re-sign him. Cause you know it’s normal to let “elite” d men walk away, except maybe if they aren’t elite to begin with.

This reminds me of those who genuinely believed Phaneuf was a #1 d man, when in reality he was 2nd pairing guy.

Completely agree.

Gardiner does not pass the eye test defensively.
- bad pinches all the time
- poor d-zone positioning
- soft plays on the puck
- constant d-zone turnovers

He is chasing his tail in the d-zone.

Advanced stats are cute and all but I'll look at them closer for players who can pass the eye test first. I mean I was told career AHLer Marancin also had great advanced stats.

 

[DoobieDubas]

Conspiracy 1: Gardiner gets boo'ed and sits two games with a 'back injury'. Diasappointed, he asked for a trade. When the trade deadline passed and he wasn't traded, his 'back injury' flares up again.

Conspiracy 2: Gardiner was playing injured and got boo'ed because he was making soft plays due to injury. Injury came back from the Buffalo game.

Conspiracy 3: Leafs not offering him a fair contract so he is making the Leafs 'feel the pain' of him not in the line up.

ouu the conspiracies!

 

[Macallan18]

I’m an eye test guy and I actually couldn’t care less about the numbers. You brought them up first. Gardiner being 29 is a total copout, Rielly will be the same age when his next contract kicks in and I can gaurentee the Leafs will be re-signing Rielly when the time comes because he is legitimately elite.

Wow this is so far off it’s not even wrong.
Ok now you say numbers mean nothing to you, you are an eye test guy.
Well the game now is all numbers especially with the cap. Maybe the Leafs will sign Morgan when his contract comes up, maybe they won’t. Reality is TODAY the numbers pretty much dictate letting Jake go because the market will overvalue him. That’s life.
And your misspelled guarantee doesn’t inspire much confidence.

 

[thewave]

Delete

 

[Beyonder91]

Wow this is so far off it’s not even wrong.
Ok now you say numbers mean nothing to you, you are an eye test guy.
Well the game now is all numbers especially with the cap. Maybe the Leafs will sign Morgan when his contract comes up, maybe they won’t. Reality is TODAY the numbers pretty much dictate letting Jake go because the market will overvalue him. That’s life.
And your misspelled guarantee doesn’t inspire much confidence.

Advanced stats aren't all powerful. They are only good with context.

Your bolded line doesn't inspire much confidence either...

 

[TheShape]

Wow this is so far off it’s not even wrong.
Ok now you say numbers mean nothing to you, you are an eye test guy.
Well the game now is all numbers especially with the cap. Maybe the Leafs will sign Morgan when his contract comes up, maybe they won’t. Reality is TODAY the numbers pretty much dictate letting Jake go because the market will overvalue him. That’s life.
And your misspelled guarantee doesn’t inspire much confidence.

So Tavares’ back half of his contract won’t be declining years? why oh why would the Leafs have signed him if he was in his late 20s at the time? Oh right, because Tavares is elite. Gardiner isn’t.

Our cup window is now, you don’t let “elite” players walk when they can be re-signed with some tinkering. Dubas isn’t going to move pieces around to replace an easily replaceable player going forward.

 

[nuck]

Well since you can’t figure it out, let me explain some things:
1 The test of being an elite defender is not predicated on goals scored, but now I see the way your mind works, you must have loved the Clarkson signing by the Leafs.
2. Gardiner is 29. In the NHL today someone will overpay him which may be ok, but the real issue is he will be given term and Dubas will not handicap this team with his declining years the way it had been handicapped by Marleau.
3. Evidence of his elite performance will the the excessive contract he will get in the summer ala JVR.
That’s it, go cheer for whoever you want, you missed recognizing one of the Leafs best d-men.

We actually don't know what Dubas would do regarding term if he had the cap. as so far the contracts he has made were mostly dictated by the player agents, not him. Dubas won't "handicap" the team with a big Gards deal because the forwards aren't leaving him the money to do that. His choices are pretty limited.

The Marner deal, as Mitch seems someone who is a probably bit more invested in being a Maple Leaf, will be KD's first chance to negotiate without a gun to his head (Willie sitting out, AM offer sheets) and then Kappy and AJ, with the latter two being valuable, but without real leverage over the club. As far as Marleau goes, I think the only reason he got that deal was they had no inkling they would need the cap room by year 3. As much as we like to pee on Lou, I think the one thing he was not expecting to have an issue with for the next three years was cap room. An overpayment but who cares, wee have the money, we don't need the money, and I want him on the club. 20-20 hindsight, and not discounting Marleau's contribution, but I don't think Lou signs him any more than I think Dubas retains Willie last summer if he knew where the club would be today.Some things are just totally out of left field.

I never thought of Gardiner as elite, although with all his brain farts a physical game could have put him there, but without Rielly i would want him retained. Mo steals his thunder with top line offensive minutes, but I have actually been kind impressed how well he has performed in a less than optimum role this season. If Zaits was a defensive rock, and not a PMD himself, it would be a different decision. With the addition of Muzzin, who actually has a physical game, there isn't room in the lineup even if he would sign cheap. I have no Gardiner hate, only own rental hate.

 

[SHANNYPLAN]

That’s reasonable. It just irritates me when people think ‘trade them all and bring up the young guys’ haha. How’d that work for schenn?

Yeah no it doesn’t. Patience paid off with Johnny and Kap, no need to rush anyone.

 

[ottomaddox]

Now Weak to Weak.

 

[deletethis]

The Leafs have depth on defense. The depth is just inexperienced.

 

[deletethis]

Conspiracy 1: Gardiner gets boo'ed and sits two games with a 'back injury'. Diasappointed, he asked for a trade. When the trade deadline passed and he wasn't traded, his 'back injury' flares up again.

Conspiracy 2: Gardiner was playing injured and got boo'ed because he was making soft plays due to injury. Injury came back from the Buffalo game.

Conspiracy 3: Leafs not offering him a fair contract so he is making the Leafs 'feel the pain' of him not in the line up.

Imaginative conspiracies, I'll give it that.

 

[diceman934]

Oh, I understand... It doesn't fit your agenda...

The point of my post was that we shouldn't be concerned about missing Gardiner's presence on PP2.

Lol. My agenda what agenda is that? Zaitsev is a mess of a D man always has been. Gardiner has carried his corpse around all year. That is a fact not an agenda!

 

[supermann_98]

Gardiner on robidas island?

Makes zero sense, they should have gotten a 1st for him at the trade deadline tho

 

[MyBudJT]

Lol. My agenda what agenda is that? Zaitsev is a mess of a D man always has been. Gardiner has carried his corpse around all year. That is a fact not an agenda!

Yeah, Zaitsev isn't as bad as you're saying he is...

 

[Leafslet]

It gets worse as you age. Hip flexors get tight, glutes weaken.
Lunges, squats and deads (ass to the grass) when you are healthy

if you're doing ass to the grass on squats and deadlifts, you're doing them wrong and will injure yourself, but whatever, you do you.

and that isn't physically possible with lunges.

 

[Notsince67]

if you're doing ass to the grass on squats and deadlifts, you're doing them wrong and will injure yourself, but whatever, you do you.

and that isn't physically possible with lunges.

I completely disagree. I blew my acl (sports injury) when I was young(had surgery to correct). The sheering action on the joint is actually harder with the half squats. I used to squat sets over 500 lbs ass to the grass (@ just over 200 lbs of weight). All my training partners who did half squats got no where near the gains and strength that I and others did. I trained with some guys who were seriously into powerlifting and they set me straight at a young age. I solely trained for strength

 

[SprDaVE]

Per Mirtle, Gardiner might be out until the 2nd round.

Mirtle: Maple Leafs in tough with potentially long-term...

I’m told that Gardiner’s injury may potentially be along the lines of the one Zach Parise had at the beginning of last season, when he missed the first 39 games of the season. Part of the reason Parise was out so long was he waited to have surgery on a herniated disc, hoping to avoid the time (8-10 weeks) missed due to going under the knife.

That waiting period is probably where we’re at now with Gardiner, who has been experiencing back pain for months now and had his ice time dialled down as a result in recent weeks.

Toronto is waiting and hoping rest and recovery eventually allow him to play unhindered. Because if he undergoes surgery, it’s unlikely he’ll be ready for the start of the playoffs. And potentially not until the second round.

Multiple sources said Wednesday it was “too early to tell” whether Gardiner would require the same surgery Parise had. But it was not off the table.

 

[Gary Nylund]

As far as Marleau goes, I think the only reason he got that deal was they had no inkling they would need the cap room by year 3. As much as we like to pee on Lou, I think the one thing he was not expecting to have an issue with for the next three years was cap room.

Half of the people who post here were saying it the minute the contract was announced, I'm pretty sure Lou knew it as well.

 

[Durrr]

So Tavares’ back half of his contract won’t be declining years? why oh why would the Leafs have signed him if he was in his late 20s at the time? Oh right, because Tavares is elite. Gardiner isn’t.

Our cup window is now, you don’t let “elite” players walk when they can be re-signed with some tinkering. Dubas isn’t going to move pieces around to replace an easily replaceable player going forward.

I agree that Gardiner isn't elite, but to say that he's easily replaced is so ignorant of how valuable a player like he is around the league. Teams will literally be lining up to sign the guy in the off season, mobile PMD that can slot anywhere in your D core are not easily replaceable.