With potential salary cap issues looming, the Toronto Maple Leafs are actively discussing the future of defenseman Jake Gardiner.

This summer the Maple Leafs added a huge contract when they signed John Tavares to a seven-year, $77MM deal. After the excitement turned into the realization Tavares was expensive, fans wondered how general manager Kyle Dubas intended to keep his young core of hockey players intact knowing the team was already going to struggle with the salary cap to fit everyone in. Toronto has Auston Matthews, William Nylander, and Mitch Marner all close to big-money deals and lost in the shuffle might have been Gardiner who quietly had a career-best season of 52 points from the Leafs blue line.

While Gardiner may be a bit one-dimensional, his offensive skills and ability to log big minutes on the back end are important to the Leafs who are loaded on offense but not necessarily strong on defense.

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James Mirtle of the Athletic was a guest on TSN radio on Tuesday and during that interview, he spoke of Gardiner's future. He said, "I think that this new management with [Kyle] Dubas and Brandon Pridham and Laurence Gilman is going to try and not lose good players for nothing in free agency." Qualifying Gardiner as one of the Leafs good young players, Mirtle added, "That would mean deciding right now whether you want to sign Jake Gardiner to a contract extension or moving him and getting something back…"

Mirtle suggested the last thing the Leafs can do is afford to lose Gardiner for nothing.

This summer, the organization already let Tyler Bozak, James van Riemsdyk, and Leo Komarov leave for no return.  In an effort to avoid repeating history, Mirtle reports the franchise has met with Gardiner to discuss a potential extension. Mirtle explained, "I know that Gardiner’s agent Pat Brisson–the same agent as Tavares–has met with Kyle Dubas and talked about Jake Gardiner’s contract." He suggests the reason is to gauge what Gardiner is expecting in terms of salary and the club can then decide "whether they want to meet that price or not."

Knowing he'll have some difficult decisions to make, Dubas is taking stock of his options now. At the end of the day, if Gardiner is looking for a long-term big money deal, it may not be in the cards for Toronto.

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