This piece will be another in my series of player profiles, where I’ll give some thoughts on the performance of a member of the Carolina Hurricanes this season. This article will focus on Jake Gardiner.
I’ll do my best not to repeat myself here, as I’ve given my thoughts on Gardiner multiple times in the past little while. Obviously, this was not the ideal season for Jake Gardiner. In the offseason, signing him for four years at just over $4 million looked like an excellent deal and gave the Hurricanes the option to deal Justin Faulk, who was entering the final year of his contract.
But Gardiner struggled for the first part of the season and Joel Edmundson ended up starting in the top-four in his place. That was just the start of Gardiner’s role being reduced, as several times this season, he ended up playing just 13 or 14 minutes. This was a far cry from the season previous, where he was often playing 20 minutes or more in Toronto.
I did think, however, that Gardiner ended up settling in much better near the end of the year. In 2020, He had 16 points in his final 28 games and while many will still rip on Gardiner’s defensive blunders or lapses in judgement, if you knew Gardiner at all before the season, it shouldn’t have been a shock to see. Gardiner is an offense-oriented player and can put up great numbers for a defenseman but the trade-off is that he’s not going to be overly reliable defensively.
With the acquisition of Brady Skjei, another top-four left-handed defenseman who comes with some defensive flaws of his own, I imagine the Hurricanes will look to deal Gardiner in the offseason. That said, at least in 2020, Gardiner was the player Carolina should have expected when they signed him and despite a horrible start, by the end of the year, we were back to the player we were used to seeing– one with huge offensive ability but a major problem when it comes to defensive reliability.
Check back tomorrow for a player profile on Dougie Hamilton.
Carolina Hurricanes Blogger • 
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