Toronto Maple Leafs: Addressing Jake Gardiner’s Giveaway Totals

Jake Gardiner is one of the Toronto Maple Leafs best defensemen even though he is a flawed player.

A lot of Toronto Maple Leafs fans seem to have a certain distaste for defenseman Jake Gardiner. Most statistics, however, would indicate that he is far from a defensive liability

Gardiner has been one of the more controversial discussion topics on the Leafs. He has his fans, but there is undoubtedly a large portion of the fanbase that absolutely despises him

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Whenever someone has a legitimate criticism of the Leafs’ defense, one of the first “solutions” proposed is often to get rid of Gardiner. The hate he receives from so many people is completely astonishing. When statistics are taken into consideration, regarding the very things he is criticized for, a lot of the things people say about him tend to fall flat on their faces.

From actual stats that can be analyzed, there really is little reason to dislike Gardiner. Hopefully, this write-up can convince you that he is an important part of the Leafs’ defense. Now, let’s address one of his more common criticisms.

Gardiner’s criticisms

The most common criticism of Gardiner is his frequent giveaways. When he is exiting the zone, he panics. His eyes dart from side to side, and he doesn’t know what to do with the puck.

The forecheck is approaching rapidly, and he has to do something with it, right? In desperation, he shovels it off the boards, right on to the stick of the opposing team’s best player. Oh Gardiner, you’ve done it again.

Alright, so this doesn’t actually happen, but it’s the impression you might get if you only looked at his giveaway totals. Gardiner, by far, has the most giveaways on the Leafs, at 105. In second is Ron Hainsey, all the way down at 85.

Well, how can this possibly be defended? 105 giveaways? That’s almost 1.3 giveaways per game. What a terrible giveaway-man he is. This is why it is so important to look beyond absolute numbers, like this. It’s so easy to come to a flawed conclusion.

Now, evidently, defensemen tend to spend more time in the defensive zone than other offenseman. That’s their job. Because of this, they’re going to end up giving the puck away a lot more.

The four players with the most giveaways on the Maple Leafs last season were all defensemen. In fact, they’re Gardiner, Hainsey, Morgan Rielly and Nikita Zaitsev. That’s right, Rielly’s there too. Giving the puck away is not exclusive to Gardiner. The fact is, defensemen give the puck away more, due to being in tougher situations more frequently. This exposes that a giveaway is not always the fault of the player.

But Gardiner has a lot more giveaways, right? Technically, yes. But, it’s not for the reason you probably think. To find out why, advanced stats need to be taken into consideration.

A lot of the time, this is where the divide exists between people who like and dislike Gardiner. Generally, the people who like him will refer to some sort of wacky percentage abbreviation, putting off a lot of people. Explaining what these advanced stats mean and why Gardiner has them, is very important.

Gardiner is very good at getting the puck out of the zone. Throughout the 33 games, he was tracked, he posted an average of 91 possession exits per 60 minutes. This is exactly how it sounds. For every 60 minutes of ice time he receives, he exits the zone 91 times with possession.

If you want a comparison, Victor Hedman of the Tampa Bay Lightning averages only 88 possession exits per 60 minutes. Additionally, the majority of Gardiner’s zone exits are with possession, at 51 percent.

Wait a second, how is that possible? With 105 giveaways, how can he possibly exit the zone with possession, the majority of the time? Well, it’s because he handles the puck a whole lot. Other defensemen on the Leafs have far fewer giveaways than him, but are still less successful, defensively.

As mentioned, Gardiner’s zone exit percentage with possession is 51 percent. Zaitsev’s was 29 percent this season. Hainsey’s was seven percent, Dermott’s was 45 percent, Roman Polak‘s was four and Connor Carrick‘s was 36 percent

The only other Leafs defensemen with exit percentages above 50 (having played at least 15 games) are Rielly and Andreas Borgman, at 59 percent and 55 percent respectively. This is the advantage Gardiner holds over other Leafs defensemen.

To reiterate, the only way Gardiner can possibly have such large quantity of defensive exits as well as giveaways, is a large amount of puck-handling. He probably goes after the puck a lot more, and well, touches it a lot more. Does he tend to give it away more? Yes. Does he tend to get it out of the zone more? Also yes. The idea that Gardiner simply leaves the puck for the other team is incorrect.

Conclusion

So, hopefully, that gives everyone a bit of a clearer picture. There are other (and some legitimate) criticisms to Gardiner’s game, but this one is probably the most common. The next time someone brings up his giveaway totals in an attempt to mock him, you can remember this.

All information regarding zone exits can be found here.