Jake Gardiner injured before playing a single regular season game with Carolina.

Is Gardiner's back still an issue?

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 4 years ago
Jake Gardiner injured before playing a single regular season game with Carolina.
David Kirouac/CSM/Zuma

It sounds like there is starting to be some concern regarding whether or not veteran defenseman Jake Gardiner is even going to be available for the start of the 2019 - 2020 National Hockey League regular season.

After an extended wait during the unrestricted free agency period in the NHL this summer Gardiner finally came to terms on a new deal with the Carolina Hurricanes. It was the kind of multi-year contract that Gardiner was looking for and when he signed the deal he also admitted that the fact that the Hurricanes were a contending team had also played some motivation in getting him to sign there. Unfortunately now it seems like things may be getting off to a rocky start for Gardiner and his new team. 

On Sunday Carolina Hurricanes head coach Rob Brind’Amour informed Carolina Hurricanes reporter Chip Alexander that there was some legitimate concern regarding Gardiner's available for the Hurricanes season opener on Thursday. According to Alexander Brind'Amour informed him that Gardiner was the "most worrisome" among his injured players, although how it is that Gardiner got injured is still a mystery at this time. The Hurricanes have been holding him out of preseason action and have acknowledged that there is indeed an injury here, but other than that we have relatively little to go on.

That being said Gardiner suffered a rather serious back injury last season and he made the difficult decision to forgo surgery and let his body heal naturally. Although there has been no indication that this injury is related to his back, back issues are notoriously difficult to get through and they can often follow a player for his entire career. The Toronto Maple Leafs were well aware of this and you have to wonder if that may have played some small role in their decision to move on from Gardiner this summer.

If this turn out to be a lingering issue for Gardiner this brand new contract from the Hurricanes could turn ugly very quickly, although it is still much too early for that to be a concern. With the regular season now just a few short days away the good news is that we likely won't have to wait much longer to find out what has been ailing Gardiner.

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