He's waiting to see if Toronto will have enough money to sign him

I’m pretty sure I heard he is trying to wait for the leafs to sign marner and see if there is any possibility to sign (with a minor pay cut) I doubt this happens tho..

How much $$ could possibly be left after marner signs? Minor pay cut is putting it minor..ly

My thoughts exactly.. very hard to see him signing with the leafs

He's waiting for Seattle to draft him as their marquee star. Until then he is on vacation in India.

Reports I saw talked about waiting after "a team" to find cap space. Not TML specificaly.

None of the above is the issue. Leafs are moving on from Gardiner. He had a back issue at the end of last season, so it does not seem like teams want to give him a contract with too much term. Last rumors were BUF and WPG. WPG makes sense, as soon as they re-sign their RFAs. But for now he has to wait for teams to get their affairs in order.

Back issues and he wants a long term deal

Yep and as long as interested teams sign him with eyes wide open (he's average at best in his own zone) things should be fine.
I got nothing against Jake, he was good for the time the Leafs had him but for the Leafs it's time to move on.

he had 22 less points then his career high the season before
he's 29 and players today peak in the NHL between 24-29 for the most part
Super stars can delay it into their early 30's but come 32 they decline to

Factor in his back issues last year and him expecting to get term and a high payout makes MIN wild the only ones trying to make room for him .


if he was just looking for a 2-3 year deal at lets say 6.5-7.5 m i think he'd be signed already
but he's coming off a season where he didnt live up to expectations and got injured , at 29 no one is looking to sign him longer then a few years
had he not had injury issues last year right before he went UFA then he'd probably be signed but no one's gambling on him to get stuck with a bad deal long term

Shattenkirk faced the same issues , invested in himself on a 1 year 1.5m deal so he could play on a good team and hopefully be in a position to negotiate next summer . Gardiner was not smart or he would have done this already

There is no back issues (Mirtle).

He is going to Montreal on longterm deal.

As a Bruins fan, let's meet in the SCF then. Your idiot (#91) will give us a nice 5 min PP and play Gardiner 20 mins every game, that will also give 3-4 more goals...

Also, it can also be his decision to wait. And he's getting minimum $5M if not $6M

There's not a lot of (good) teams left that can pay him that. His options are very limited at this point if he thinks he's getting that.