Sportsnet’s Luke Fox posted a set of 12 notes this morning. Fox suggests that the Red Wings may be the logical landing spot for Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman and unrestricted free agent-to-be Jake Gardiner.
Fox notes that the rumor mill has been utterly silent regarding Gardner’s whereabouts, so he posits a couple of possible landing spots, including Florida, Minnesota, Vancouver and Detroit:
I submit the Red Wings. Steve Yzerman might want to make a statement with his new/old club, and Detroit has one defenceman signed beyond 2019-20, Danny DeKeyser.
The Wings traded Nick Jensen. Niklas Kronwall is a 38-year-old UFA. Jonathan Ericsson, Trevor Daley and Mike Green will all be 34 or older by mid-October.
Gardiner makes them younger, faster and more mobile.
Fox continues, and I’m sticking to my guns: the less the Wings do in free agency, the happier I will be, with “doing nothing but watching” being my happy place.
I do expect the Wings to make a UFA signing or two, but I don’t expect said signing(s) to be major ones.
Hockey News a few weeks ago evaluated both Myers and Gardiner. The result: on a good team they would be third paring. Hey lets spend $6-7 M a year on that. Someone will just hope its not the Wings. Trouba has not signed an extension yet with the Rangers, next year if available he may be a great free agent signing. Face it the Wings are not going to be a contender next year so why buy this year?