Confirmed with Link: Canes Sign Defenseman Jake Gardiner to 4 Year Contract

[Finlandia WOAT]

They have forward depth out the wazoo. Their middle 6 of Williams, staal, foegele, wallmark, svech and martinhook --> added haula, dzingle and necas, take out williams and move down wallmark/martinhook. Faulk doesnt have much value, if theyre ltiring tvr that they're keeping him as a rental. We'll see if he'll re-sign for 5 aav or try to get 6+ from some desperate team.

This management is operating with a "sign a reasonable deal or get out" mentality at the perfect moment of history. Stagnant cap + ballooning rfa deals means depth players are getting squeezed. 5 year window starts now, hope mrazek and reimer and ned can hold the fort.

Some guy on the hans board claimed that Les Cannadiennes were only offering 3 years, we won the day with the extra year.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

I can't believe I'm sitting here waiting, hoping, almost expecting, for the Canes to pull off *another* ridiculous deal.

Once I stopped being a dummy and realized Gardiner was LHD, I now think it's 50/50 at this point. They may just move forward with the guys they have now, and reassess when TVR comes back.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

They have forward depth out the wazoo. Their middle 6 of Williams, staal, foegele, wallmark, svech and martinhook --> added haula, dzingle and necas, take out williams and move down wallmark/martinhook. Faulk doesnt have much value, if theyre ltiring tvr that they're keeping him as a rental. We'll see if he'll re-sign for 5 aav or try to get 6+ from some desperate team.

This management is operating with a "sign a reasonable deal or get out" mentality at the perfect moment of history. Stagnant cap + ballooning rfa deals means depth players are getting squeezed. 5 year window starts now, hope mrazek and reimer and ned can hold the fort.

Don't forget Ferland out, not that it changes the overall point.

 

[Pyrophorus]

Wut.

There's gotta be another shoe to drop with this one, right? Does this mean we're actually going for Laine or one of the Leafs RFAs?

The Leafs have one RFA.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

The Leafs have one RFA.

That's what you think.

 

[Pyrophorus]

Wow-Gardiner makes your team stacked.

NEVER heard that before.

 

[Finlandia WOAT]

Don't forget Ferland out, not that it changes the overall point.

Whoops! Take out ferland, add nino.

 

[Pyrophorus]

That's what you think.

Thrill me with your knowledge of our team?

 

[TheReelChuckFletcher]

I bet that Arizona might be now in on a Faulk trade. They were the other rumored team to be interested in Gardiner, and they have the space for a D upgrade once Hossa is put on LTIR.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

Thrill me with your knowledge of our team?

I also think they have one RFA.

 

[FreshSeabass]

 

[TheBigKahuna]

What about Faulk + Reimer + Toronto 1st + some good prospect for a high-end goalie?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

You spelled "skilled center" wrong.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

Wow-Gardiner makes your team stacked.

NEVER heard that before.

Neither have I - we've never signed Gardiner before until today!

 

[Navin R Slavin]

You spelled "skilled center" wrong.

Hey, either way!

 

[The Stranger]

Oof got him

Faulk is top 10 for goals by d-men since he came into the league...all-time point leader for d-men in franchise history...but sure, his shots go harmlessly to the net.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

If nothing else, they've once again set the market for Faulk for further discussions.

"We signed DeHaan for $4M-ish multi-year deal. We signed Gardiner for $4M-ish multi-year deal. If you honestly think you're better than those guys, go get paid."

 

[Svechhammer]

This signing is all about taking advantage of the post-Day 1 UFA market. Yes, Canes were already stacked on D. The fact is, though, that the one remaining premier UFA was a defenseman, and every other team was sweating bullets about the RFAs. Because every single player that we had was locked up, including Aho, I was screaming for weeks about the Canes having the luxury to pull a power move and having the ability to sign Gardiner to a value contract. Incredibly, they did exactly that. Bravo!

All jokes aside, this front office has been clowning the rest of the league the past 15 months or so. You look at our roster, and there just isn't a bad contract there. We're absolutely loaded on defense spending less than $20m for our entire top 2 lines. Offensively, we might not (yet... looking at you Svech) have a true elite superstar, but we are loaded with guys right below that tier, and they seemingly are all locked up long term for absurdly reasonable deals. And we just absolutely killed it during the draft, which should help us keep our contention window open longer once we're ready.

And all of this happens during a time when every single level of the organization made its respective conference final, and the AHL team won the championship, despite having some of the youngest rosters at those levels.

The past 10 years of awful have led to this, and I think we're about to break out in a very big way. I would not be surprised if 5 years from now, there are national thinkpieces being written about how the league allowed the Canes to corner the market like they did in some regards.

 

[tarheelhockey]

I just got a lot more OK with the de Haan thing.

 

[Canes]

I am so confused by this signing.

 

[Unsustainable]

I don’t even this.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

"Williams isn't coming back? Quick, get someone over 27."

 

[Lempo]

Hey, either way!

Ermh... we call it "two-way".

 

[TheReelChuckFletcher]

The incredible thing about this is that even while the Canes are over the cap ceiling, they're not even close to cap "hell." Because everybody is signed to good contracts and are all for good players that teams actually want, they're easily moveable even in this environment.

 

[Lempo]

The incredible thing about this is that even while the Canes are over the cap ceiling, they're not even close to cap "hell." Because everybody is signed to good contracts and are all for good players that teams actually want, they're easily moveable even in this environment.

That's like the ultimate insult! *devilish laughter*

 

[My Special Purpose]

the other possibility is that Waddell is trying to correct the one anomaly he has on defense...Dougie Hamilton. Not that Dougie isn't good or effective or valuable but he's..............Canadian! (play mystery solved conclusory music here)

I heart Dougie, obviously, but Brindy is part of the GMBC, and he complained on more than one ocassion that he wasn't quite sure what to do with him. And then the Caps series happened. And he never got a look on PP1. I wouldn't be *shocked* if he was available.

I keep seeing people knock Gardiner about his defensive mistakes on the ice. But when we have guys like Slavin and Pesce on the other side of the pairing, we have the luxury of putting guys out there who can drive offensive play, because those defensive lapses will mostly be covered up by the other half of the pairing. (Which, as an aside, frustrated me a bit about Faulk not really breaking out this year when paired with either of those 2).

Slavin-Hamilton
Pesce-Gardiner

I'd put that top 4 up against anyone else in the league. Two lines of shutdown defense paired with upper tier offensive ability. This defense is so stacked.

Keep in mind this is Toronto's fanbase we're talking about. Gardiner's defensive issues are *very* overstated. His defensive point shares the past three seasons are 5.1, 4.1 and 3.4 (avg. 4.2, despite missing 20 games due to injury). Faulk's are 2.8, 2.1 and 4.9 (avg. 3.3 with no significant time missed). Gardiner is not in any way an offensive defenseman. He's a two-way guy who can help on the power play. Or, about what we'd have said about Faulk before his power-play performance went into the tank.

Gardiner replaces Hamilton's skillset more than he does Faulk's.

That is 100 percent false. There may not be two defensemen in the league that mirror each other more than Gardiner and Faulk. Gardiner is a left-handed Faulk and vice versa. Faulk even comes up on Gardiner's similarity score on Hockey Reference, which takes into account every player who has ever played in the NHL:

I can't believe I'm sitting here waiting, hoping, almost expecting, for the Canes to pull off *another* ridiculous deal.

Have you stopped giggling yet? I haven't.