Wednesday’s FTB: What’s Jake Gardiner up to?

Good morning fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey club!

Have you noticed all of the talk has been about what RFA’s are up to lately? I mean, those are some pretty good players, but there’s one UFA that has been mysteriously quiet.

After ending his season with a back injury - terrible timing, you want to get injured AFTER you sign a long term deal, not before - Jake Gardiner has been missing. Yeah, he played in the series against Boston, but there’s no way he was healed.

Gardiner is unsigned, after reportedly being connected to the Vancouver Canucks, as well as seeking a longer term deal.

Neither of those things have come to fruition. with Gardiner joining a few bigger name free agents still without deals - though he’s the only one under 30 - he’s 28.

The other UFA defenders on the market are a mixture of big names looking for one last deal, or players who are just names you may remember from that one game the Leafs played against; Niklas Kronall (38), Dan Girardi (35), and Dion Phanefu (34) make up the former and Ben Hutton, Adam McQuaid, Joe Morrow, and Ryan Murphy are a good bunch of the latter. For a full list of UFA defenders, you can click here and see it at Cap Friendly.

With such slim pickings on defense, it’s curious to see Jake still out there and available. Are teams really worried about his back? Maybe he’s waiting for the Maple Leafs to make an offer or tell him they’re really not going to bring him back.

If teams are scared of his injury, maybe the Leafs will be able to get him on a sweetheart ‘show me’ deal so he can earn that big money next summer.

Crazier things have happened.

Here’s the news.

Paying the Piper: How Negotiations Will Impact The Leafs Salary Distribution

Is this a re-post? Whatever, it’s new to me. Mackinaw Stats is good, so it’s worth it.

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It’s good that there’s no title up there. Keeps me honest. 51 Leafs looks at a certain RFA and his penalty killing.

Toronto Maple Leafs 2019 Offseason: Where have they improved and where do the question marks remain? | Maple Leafs Hotstove

Back up goal, bottom 3 D, and 3rd line LW.

How concerning is the Flyers’ goaltending situation heading into 2019-20?

Hopefully very (sorry Annie).

A short-term deal with Gardiner still makes sense for the Sabres