Jake Gardiner linked to a team in the Eastern Conference.

The curious case of Jake Gardiner continues, but perhaps for the first time this season we have a journalist linking Gardiner to a potential landing spot that is not the Toronto Maple Leafs.

All the talk around Gardiner of course has suggested that the veteran defenseman is waiting to see how much Maple Leafs' restricted free agent Mitch Marner will sign for this summer in the hopes that the Leafs will have room left over to give him a new deal. We are now 20 days into free agency however and you have to wonder how much longer Gardiner and his management will be willing to wait around for the Leafs and Marner to get a deal done. 

In a recent article Devils reporter Chris Ryan of NJ Advanced Media touched on the fact that Devils general manager Ray Shero could very well target Gardiner during the offseason to bolster the left side of his defense. The Devils boast a whopping $18 million in cap space even after some big offseason moves like the acquisition of Nashville Predators star defenseman P.K. Subban. Subban will unquestionably take over the right side on the Devils' top defensive pairing, and the addition of Gardiner to that blue line would give the Devils a potent offensive punch from their top 2. It would suddenly give the Devils a very competitive 1 - 2 punch on the blue line, something that they were sorely lacking last season. Additionally given the roles both Subban and Gardiner played on their respective teams, both men are already well accustomed to the tougher match ups the National Hockey League has to offer.

Although Gardiner was limited to just 62 games last season he still recorded 3 goals and 27 assists for a total of 30 points from the blue line. It is likely still a long shot for the Devils to get Gardiner as it seems clear at this point that the player is very loyal to the organization for which he plays. It seems impossible to imagine that a player of Gardiner's caliber, even one that has at times been a liability defensively, has not received any concrete offers this late into free agency.