Agent's tweet sets back Jake Gardiner
by Steve Simmons, Toronto Sun
TORONTO - Whatever it was that Jake Gardiner said to his agent on the telephone Wednesday morning, the young defenceman wasn’t about to share it with those who had surrounded him with cameras and microphones outside the Toronto Marlies dressing room.
He looked the way he usually looks in front of the Toronto lights, part-deer, part-headlights, somewhat frozen, unemotional and just a little bit stoic.
“It’s his choice to do that,” Gardiner said of his agent, Ben Hankinson, who had taken to Twitter on the same night the Leafs were thumped by the Winnipeg Jets and written #FreeJakeGardiner.
“It’s his choice,” said Gardiner. “Not much I can really control ... I don’t think he meant any harm by it.”
Gardiner said that. His words may have seemed true. Perhaps they were. But his body language spoke differently.
His body language said: I’m only out here speaking to you fine media people because my %^$#%& agent got me in the headlines, and now I have to cover his ass and explain everything.
Me? If Ben Hankinson were my agent on Tuesday night, he wouldn’t have been by Wednesday morning. I would have fired him. If Hankinson wants to advocate for his client, wants to inquire why he isn’t playing for the Leafs, why he hasn’t been called up — which, frankly, a lot of us have been wondering about — Twitter isn’t the place to make his mark.
A phone call to Dave Nonis, the Leafs general manager, would be a nice start. A conversation with Nonis’ lieutenants, Dave Poulin or Claude Loiselle, may be appropriate. Taking on the Leafs front office in social media? That’s for fans. It’s the most immature of mediums, and not for those representing prized prospects.
Apparently, Hankinson has gone that route. His late night tweet, though, blew up on him. Hankinson, for the record, made himself unavailable to defend himself Wednesday.
“I’m not sure how well- thought it was from the agent’s point of view,” said Dallas Eakins, the coach who has been handed the important job of further developing Gardiner’s game. “(Jake’s) got a game today. Him and I have a plan in place and how we’re trying to get him back to the NHL and part of the plan is for him to be the best player on the ice everyday. To do that, you have to be mentally free of everything.
“We have a little bit of white noise going on (today).”
Here is among the problems with Hankinson’s tweet. Just about every day in the past few weeks, the Leafs front office has had a conversation about Gardiner. They have spoken to Eakins every day. The matter being discussed: When’s the optimum time to bring Gardiner back to the Leafs?
“If we call him up today, which might have been possible, everybody will say we’re bowing to the pressure of the agent,” said a Leafs front-office voice. “If we don’t call him up, some will say we’re just being stubborn about it. Either way, it’s not right. (Hankinson’s) put his kid in a position he doesn’t need to be.
“It’s not like we haven’t been talking about this every single day.”
The current youngsters on the Leafs defence, Mike Kostka, Korbinian Holzer, Mark Fraser, may all be NHL players for the long run, although that’s doubtful. But none of them have what Gardiner has. None of them are in demand elsewhere. None of them made the NHL’s all-rookie team a year ago. None of them have the explosive game-changing speed that makes Gardiner so rare a commodity.
But one of them will have to go, unless the Leafs do something with the well-paid press-box watcher John-Michael Liles, to make room for Gardiner. Fraser isn’t going anywhere, he’s been too solid. Kostka would need to clear waivers to be sent down, so that’s unlikely. The more likely to be sent out is the newly signed Holzer, who can still be sent to the AHL without restraints.
Gardiner is aware of all this: It’s his agents job to make him aware of all the possibilities. And it’s his agent’s job to do his bidding — primarily in private. And no doubt, it will be that way in the future.
Gardiner will be called up, maybe today, maybe tomorrow. He is now day to day with the Marlies.
“I don’t want him happy to be here,” said Eakins of the AHL. “I don’t want any of our players happy to be here. I want him to be clawing to get out of this dressing room and back to the NHL.
“It’s like a tightrope a little bit. You want him to be angry. You want him to be hungry but, at the same time, you don’t want it to turn into a negative or affect the team. That’s the great thing about Jake. Is he hungry to get out of here? Absolutely. Have we seen any little bit of it in the dressing room or around his teammates? Absolutely not.”
When asked if Gardiner is ready to return to the NHL, Eakins answered with an emphatic: “Absolutely.”
The question now is when? This season has been difficult enough for Gardiner already, with the concussion recovery and trying to find his legs again. His agent didn’t need to make it that much more trying.
http://www.torontosun.com/2013/03/13/agents-tweet-sets-back-jake-gardiner
I have to agree with Simmons. What Gardiner's agent did will now only delay is call-up. It's unfair, but that's how it goes.
