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Jake Gardiner opens up about a lost season in Toronto, turning down the Canadiens and why he chose Carolina To be honest, Jake Gardiner isn’t really the complaining type. He’s always been quiet and unassuming, just a kid out of Minnetonka who is grateful to be in the NHL and have the life he does. But he’ll tell you the story behind his difficult 2018-19 season, if you ask. He’ll talk about the debilitating back injury – a herniated disc – which robbed him of 20 to 30 percent of the strength in one leg most of last season. He’ll talk about trying to play through that, on a Leafs team desperate for his minutes on defence, and the struggle it was to even participate in practices and games. He’ll talk about getting booed by the home crowd every time he touched the puck on some nights. And about coming back, despite not having a contract lined up, putting his future on the line to try and write a redemption story in the playoffs. Only to be at the centre of a crushing Game 7 loss in Boston, for the third time in seven years. It was, in a lot of ways, a cursed season, one that beat him down the longer it wore on. “In your contract year, you’re trying to play through everything,” Gardiner said on a call from Denver, where his new club was playing on Thursday. “Finally I just said, this is too painful. I had to take some time off. Luckily I didn’t have to do surgery or anything. That was probably one of the harder things to go through (in my career), especially in a contract year. “Obviously the goal is to win, and I felt like we had the team to do it. It obviously wasn’t ideal. But I enjoyed every game I played there and all eight years. I don’t really have any regrets.” )With the Leafs facing a cap crunch and the uncertainty over Mitch Marner’s contract, it added up to a date for Gardiner with the open market on July 1. But he was entering free agency in a difficult negotiating position, given his injury and struggles throughout the year. When Gardiner didn’t sign until early September – on a bargain four-year deal with the Carolina Hurricanes – there were plenty of theories around the league as to why. The one that didn’t get talked about was that Gardiner had decided he no longer wanted to play under a bright spotlight, after his disheartening year in Toronto. He actually turned down a lucrative contract – believed to be more than $5-million a season – from the Montreal Canadiens on July 3, which led to his long wait for a new deal as other teams moved players around and created cap space. Gardiner’s experience in 2018-19 was so difficult, he explained, that he couldn’t picture going to the Leafs’ hated rival and absorbing all of the pressure that went with that. He didn’t like the idea of signing a big deal and potentially disappointing another hockey hotbed. So he didn’t. And it meant leaving millions on the table. Almost six months later, Gardiner is at peace with his decision. He loves Carolina and just bought a house that his family – wife, Lucy, and 15-month-old son, Henry – will move into in the Raleigh area in the next few weeks. “The injury didn’t help the summer,” Gardiner said of what happened in free agency, where a large number of teams were willing to offer only one- and two-year deals. “But I think it ended up the right way. “(The Montreal decision) was definitely tough,” he added. “That was basically kind of crunch time. They wanted to know if I was going to sign there or not. Ultimately I, honestly, especially playing for Toronto, all of those years, basically going to their enemy or rival or whatever you want to call it, was one part of the decision. “And also the Canadian market I think, I’m a little bit older now, I’ve got a kid, and it’s just kind of nice to be in a place where, in a sense, it’s a little bit more relaxed. You can breathe a little bit more.” Gardiner’s friends and family thought passing on Montreal was the right decision. They watched up close as he was overwhelmed last year with the Leafs – by the injury, the pressure, the booing and the pending contract decision. To be clear, the Leafs organization – from management down to former coach Mike Babcock – were always supportive, and Gardiner would have returned if there was a fit under the salary cap. They defended his play in the media last season and told him in private to ignore his detractors, especially when the booing started last January. But this was a chance at a reset, somewhere new. Somewhere … quieter. “When he got booed, that was really a low point for him,” Gardiner’s father, John, said. “That was about as low as it could get. That was really, really hard. But Babcock was great. Called him at night. So did (Brendan) Shanahan. “It was really hard. He had that leg, and you saw it in his skating. It was insane. He battled through it, but there were a lot of emotions going on there, and it was really, really tough. The coaching staff was really supportive of him through that whole process. That was really great. He didn’t have any issues there. Babcock was really great with him. So that helped a lot. He wasn’t getting any heat from there. But it was really difficult. “Looking back – should he have played? I don’t know. But he did. Jake wouldn’t have (sat out). That’s just not him. That wasn’t even an option we talked about. I think that’s a tribute to him and those teammates he had and the respect he had for them.” Gardiner ended up getting lucky: His back never required surgery and is now fully healed. Never a player who has had many injuries, he hopes that’s the last time he deals with it. Gardiner’s time in Toronto was controversial in the fan base. He had sterling analytics and was an incredibly smooth skater and puck handler, but his detractors could never look past his mistakes that turned into goals against. He became the Leafs latest version of Larry Murphy, the skilled defenceman who plays big minutes and takes far too much of the blame when things don’t go well. All told, Gardiner appeared in 551 games, 11th most by a Leafs defenceman in franchise history, and put up 245 points, which ranks 10th. Only Tomas Kaberle and Bryan McCabe have played more minutes on Toronto’s blue line in the last 20 years. “Honestly, I loved it there,” Gardiner said. “And that team – I know they’re not doing well right now, but that’s a team that is very, very good. I’m sure they’re getting a lot of criticism up there, but that’s a team that’s definitely got a chance to win every single night.” Has he been watching a lot of their games? “I haven’t watched many at all actually,” he said. “I’m just really surprised at the standings, how they’re doing. It doesn’t make any sense to me. “I’d be shocked if they didn’t make the playoffs.” Gardiner is off to his own slow start in Carolina with only eight points in 35 games, although his underlying numbers remain very strong (led by a 55.9 percent CF% and 55.7 percent xGF%). The reality is that he’s relegated to third-pair duty on a stacked blue line depth chart made up of Jaccob Slavin, Dougie Hamilton, Joel Edmundson and Brett Pesce, and everyone has, so far, remained healthy. But Gardiner likes coach Rod Brind’Amour – “he might be in the best shape on our team” – and has enjoyed reconnecting with former Leafs teammate James Reimer, who is off to a strong start in Carolina. Gardiner also marvels at all the young talent on the Hurricanes, a group he believes rivals the offensive stars he played with in Toronto. I saw Mitch and Matts and Nylander and all the skill they had,” he said. “Honestly, it’s pretty similar here with Teravainen, Svechnikov and Aho. I didn’t realize how good those guys were because you don’t hear about them too much. And then on the back end, too, I mean, Slavin and Pesce and Dougie. I think especially Slavin’s got to be one of the most underrated players in the league I would say. He does everything so well.” Gardiner hopes he can play a bigger role in Carolina’s success as the season goes on and he further adjusts to a new team and system. But, for now, he is happy with his decision, given he is on one of the best teams in the league and in a lower stress environment. “It’s been great,” he said. “Team’s awesome. Weather is great. My wife likes it. Really good guys on the team. It’s been a pretty easy transition, to be honest. “It is very interesting how, playing in Carolina, it’s basically like the polar opposite (of Toronto’s fan and media environment). If I have a bad game here, you’re not going to hear about it, really. In Toronto, if I scored a hat trick, I’m the best player in the league. If I’m dash three (minus-3) or something, it’s ‘We need to trade this guy.’ It’s very, very opposite.” Gardiner stays in regular contact with former teammates Morgan Rielly and Mitch Marner, who he expects to take out to dinner in Toronto on Sunday night, before he faces his old team for the first time on Monday afternoon. He also touches base with Auston Matthews and Justin Holl, another Minnesotan who he’s known for years. “He’s a really good player,” Gardiner said of Holl. “He’s always been a good player. He just hasn’t really gotten the opportunity. Finally, he has and he’s taken advantage of it. So that’s great to see.” Gardiner hesitates when asked about the reception he expects to get on Monday. He knows there’ll likely be a tribute at some point during a break in play, just like the one Nazem Kadri got a few weeks ago when Colorado came through town. But after last season, Gardiner isn’t sure if there’ll be boo-birds mixed in with the cheers. Regardless, he’ll have his family in the crowd, with his parents flying in from Minnesota just like old times. Gardiner calls Toronto his “home away from home,” the place where he got his chance to live out a childhood dream. He’s 29 years old now, and he’s moved on, but Monday will still mean something. “It’ll be really good to see those guys,” Gardiner said. “I’m sure it’ll be a little bit emotional … It’s definitely going to be weird. “I don’t know. It’s just another hockey game, I guess? Maybe I’ll slash Mo or something a few times. Or Mitchy. We’ll see.”
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