Toronto Maple Leafs: Which players should be on your Fantasy team?
7. Jake Gardiner
Mar 8, 2014; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Jake Gardiner (51) celebrates his goal against the Philadelphia Flyers at Air Canada Centre. Mandatory Credit: Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports
A new contract and a lock to be in the top 4, it could be the right time for Jake Gardiner to become an emerging Fantasy player on your roster. Now do not mistaken this as me telling you to get him with your top picks, there are players ahead of him that get the time on the first power play unit which is the one thing that hinders Gardiner’s value. However, I will argue that Jake Gardiner was one of the Leafs best defencemen during their season ending meltdown (I mentioned it again and I’m sorry!). The table below shows Gardiner’s statistics from last season starting from the Pacific road trip until the end of the season provided by NHL.com.
| G | A | P | +/- | PIM | TOI | PPP | |
| APR 12 ’14 TOR @ OTT | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 23:40 | 0 |
| APR 10 ’14 TOR @ FLA | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 22:37 | 0 |
| APR 8 ’14 TOR @ TBL | 0 | 0 | 0 | -2 | 0 | 23:57 | 0 |
| APR 5 ’14 WPG @ TOR | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 23:19 | 0 |
| APR 3 ’14 BOS @ TOR | 0 | 1 | 1 | -1 | 0 | 16:38 | 1 |
| APR 1 ’14 CGY @ TOR | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 21:04 | 0 |
| MAR 29 ’14 DET @ TOR | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 23:19 | 0 |
| MAR 28 ’14 TOR @ PHI | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 24:31 | 0 |
| MAR 25 ’14 STL @ TOR | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 24:37 | 1 |
| MAR 23 ’14 TOR @ NJD | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 21:40 | 1 |
| MAR 22 ’14 MTL @ TOR | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 22:37 | 0 |
| MAR 19 ’14 TBL @ TOR | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 21:02 | 0 |
| MAR 18 ’14 TOR @ DET | 1 | 0 | 1 | -1 | 0 | 21:15 | 1 |
| MAR 16 ’14 TOR @ WSH | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 18:47 | 0 |
| MAR 13 ’14 TOR @ LAK | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14:45 | 0 |
| MAR 11 ’14 TOR @ SJS | 2 | 0 | 2 | -1 | 0 | 26:21 | 0 |
| MAR 10 ’14 TOR @ ANA | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 17:38 | 0 |
After the Pacific road trip his minutes started to increase, I calculated that in those span of games Gardiner played on average 21:38 TOI (time on ice) a night. In comparison Dion Phaneuf played 20:51 TOI , which shows how much Gardiner was used by Carlyle in a tough stretch in the season. Now if Gardiner could play at that level this season then he could provide some decent fantasy value for your team but do not reach too much to take him. He is ranked 213th overall by NHL.com but that is mainly because he is not considered an elite defencemen yet. However he should be able to get 30+ points this season, maybe more if Franson is not on the first power play unit and hopefully he can keep his +/- above 0 this season.