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Jake Gardiner

CarltonTheBear said:
This isn't how the end-of-year teams are decided, but Gardiner finished 6th in the Calder voting, 1st among defencemen. The defencemen behind him were Justin Faulk, Slava Voynov, Jared Cowen, Marc-Andre Gragnani, and Adam Larsson. Not exactly a stellar group of defencemen (at least at the moment), but traditionally there aren't a lot of great rookie blueliners.

The voting results were posted here: http://www.630ched.com/Blogs/thebullpen/BlogEntry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10396790
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How dare you diminish this minor accolade?
 
cw said:
That doesn't directly address your claim of him having a "good contract".

Gunnarsson currently has a "good contract" so he is more tradeable. He's not as good offensively but he's better defensively. And so they're roughly comparable talent levels I suppose.

Liles should have been moved prior to the deadline in my opinion.

Let's say Gunnarsson-Phaneuf remain as a pairing in the top 4, as seems likely right now. You can't very well pair Liles with Phanuef because then you have two dmen together who are not great defensively (as they found out last season).

Gardiner & Liles can't fill out the second top 4 pairing because they're both puck movers lacking defence - they need some meat with their partner.  The future is Gardiner. Therefore, on paper, Liles was looking like a 5-6 pairing guy in the near future before they signed him. And they gave him nearly $4 mil/season for that vision.

There are loads of cheaper 5-6 puck movers available on the UFA market. They may not be quite as good but the money saved could help in other areas of the roster. Meanwhile, we have guys like Franson who might do well as a 5-6 puck mover and Blacker & Percy coming along well before Liles contract runs out.

Liles contract didn't make a lot of sense to me at the time and it still doesn't. He's paid as a top 50 dman in the NHL and I don't think he's that close to top 50.
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I agree with most of your points, but I disagree about his contract. Like Busta said, relative to his average production, he is exactly where he should be with his contract. He took less to stay here, so I can't get on him for that, he still has value IMO.

As far as the pairings go, I totally agree that Burke will have some maneuvering to do to make them all fit right.
 
Gardiner proving his mettle with the Marlies...

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=408455

...if there's a challenge for top guns like Gardiner, it's to treat the league like it is the NHL, promptly demonstrating nightly why they're just a cut above the present competition.

"I expect him to be the best defenceman on our team," said Marlies coach Dallas Eakins of Gardiner. "We've had no problem with him, his motivation, we've had no problem with him playing hard every night, he wants to win, he wants to be the best player on the ice; I think this time for him right now is being well-served.
 
A potential blow for the #leafs. Per @KyleTheReporter, Jake Gardiner is out with concussion-like symptoms.
 
Corn Flake said:
RedLeaf said:
A potential blow for the #leafs. Per @KyleTheReporter, Jake Gardiner is out with concussion-like symptoms.
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Well at least it's not a concussion.  ::)
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I posted this in the Marlies gdt, but for those not wandering over there Eakins is now calling Gardiner's injury a concussion.
 
It's amazing how well the Leafs develop their prospects...there are a lot of them playing with the Marlies, who should be playing in the NHL sometime in the near future.  The major problem I see is that once the players make it to the Leafs, they become somewhat ruined.  When Schenn first started, he was making a few rookie mistakes which were okay, but I thought he played very well just the same.  Last season, he played like he was trying to be in two different places at the same time, yet both were not the places he should have been.  Aulie played well for a while, when he was traded to the Leafs, then he tanked.  If Kadri had been drafted by most other teams, I figure he would have played most of last season in the NHL, instead of bouncing back and forth.  It would be nice if the Leafs could draft and fully develop the players to become decent players, rather than bounce back and forth between the AHL and NHL or stay in the minors or get traded to other teams where the players become very productive. 
 
lamajama said:
Any word on Gardiner's injury and for that matter Kadri's?
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Found the following on HF Boards (before Wednesday night's Marlies  6-0 shutout over the Bulldogs):

Paul Hendrick @HennyTweeits
Optional skate for the marlies this morning. Jake gardiner isn't skating yet but is feeling much better and working the bike.#marlies

Paul Hendrick @HennyTweets
Mike zigomanis and nazem kadri are skating this morning. we'll know their status for tonight's game vs hamilton shortly.#marlies

Source:  HF Boards
 
@DarrenDreger
Jake Gardiner has passed his baseline test, but still has some concussion related symptoms. Getting better, but no time-frame for return.
 
Good news....

Maybe Wednesday night, more likely Thursday...

http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Hockey/NHL/Toronto/2013/01/21/20513666.html
 
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