CarltonTheBear said:This has been debated a bit already but it's entirely possible Gardiner came into July 1st thinking he was the best defenceman available and that he'd get $7mil x 7 years and that other teams still see him as a defenceman who makes a lot of mistakes in the defensive zone and doesn't actually put up a ton of points (at least not for a $7mil defenceman).
Reading this back, I wanted to clarify that I'm not knocking Gardiner here (anyone who has even kinda followed my posts in the past knows I think very highly of him). But he's also a very tough player to find a market value for. We still haven't really seen players whose biggest trait is puck possession cash in for big dollars on a contract I don't think. And Gardiner's lack of big offensive numbers also doesn't help him a ton. I will say whoever does end up signing him will probably end up with a pretty good contract for their team.