The 25 year old Toronto Maple Leafs blueliner has been one of the best players on the back-end this year for the blue and white. His reward? The rumor mill.
From Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun:
“There aren’t many in the names of blueliners being shopped: Trevor Daley (Chicago), Matt Carle (Tampa), Justin Braun (San Jose), Braydon Coburn (Tampa), Ron Hainsey (Carolina), Carl Gunnarsson (St. Louis), Jake Gardiner (Toronto) and Kris Russell (Calgary).” (Bruce Garrioch)
From Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet, via Chris Nichols of Today’s Slapshot:
“The other thing I kind of got a bit of a handle on yesterday was I think for a little while before they traded Ryan O’Reilly, the Maple Leafs and the Avalanche talked about an O’Reilly for Jake Gardiner-type deal with other parts, but they could never get it done.