Which team has a worse blueline than this Leafs wo Gardiner

Ottawa or Detroit, AKA the worst teams in the nhl

fair enough, I did forget about Detroit -- lots of old, expensive, broken bodies.

Though I don't think Ottawa trades Chabot for the Leafs' entire blueline

Dallas, they are playing two Leaf rejects, Polak and Carrick. Certainly Montreal, Dallas, Chicago and Detroit. They allowed more goals than the Leafs when the too teams played.

Klingberg + Heiskanen 2 top pair D on their ELCs.
Lindell + Honka are equivalent to Dermott + Liljegren
Methot trumps any further debate


Also Carrick was not the worst defensively for the Leafs, but they committed to Zaitsev + Ozzy.
Polak, I have no idea what their GM was thinking but I guess the Leafs have Hainsey just to be that veteran guy as well.

small sample, but Leafs WITH Gardiner this season
5 on 5 % of shots while score close

1. San Jose 64.46%
3. Vegas 61.74%
13. Dallas 52.55%
18. Leafs 49.60% (for reference, it was 13th/16 or 46.19% in last year's playoff hockey)
20. Detroit 47.67%
24. Washington 41.18%

Leafs without Gardiner probably fall to where Washington has been to start this season, without the hangover excuse or extensions in the rearview mirror. Just above an Anaheim with 7 guys on LTIR, or NYR who are beginning their own scorched earth Shanaplan.


So Leafs without Gardiner are about as good as NYI's defence today, although the Leafs have a brighter future. So NYI and DET are 2 teams that would swap bluelines with the Leafs. Not the worst in the league, but it's a glaring problem compared to the rest of the team and it's receiving no attention. Unless a star forward is traded, Gardiner walks and no one new comes in -- which everyone seems to be fine with, just keep sweeping the problem under the rug