Before we begin this journey, full-disclosure, I’m not referencing any statistics in this article (that would miss the point). I think I’ve been too fixated on numbers lately and I want this piece to be about more than zeros and ones. The Toronto Maple Leafs most polarizing player is great by every statistic we have to measure a hockey player, but for right now we’ll ignore that.
More specifically, I want this article to consider Gardiner’s human side, and I want us to consider his value as a person and a teammate, not just his value as an offensive defensemen.