Detroit Red Wings should have pursued Jake Gardiner over Patrik Nemeth

The Detroit Red Wings signed rugged defensive defenseman Patrik Nemeth when Jake Gardiner sat on the free-agent market. This very well could have been one of the biggest offseason mistakes.

When free agency began, most would consider former Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Jake Gardiner as the first or second-best defenseman on the market. In reality, the Detroit Red Wings went in and decided to sign former Colorado Avalanche rugged third-pairing defenseman Patrik Nemeth. Nemeth will be with the Red Wings for two years with an average annual value of $3 million while Gardiner remains untouched.

For the (arguable) top defenseman on the market to make it to almost August without even being approached by a multitude of teams is crazy so there obviously has to be something wrong with him right? Correct, is the lingering back injury an issue? What are other reasons that may be driving teams away, and preventing him from signing a new deal? Is this something that could have been a concern to the Detroit Red Wings?

First off, it is rumored that Gardiner is waiting on the Maple Leafs to re-sign Mitch Marner. The hope is that they can bring back Gardiner on a short-term small money deal or even long-term for a little bit of money. That is not really up to the Detroit Red Wings, that shouldn’t affect their decision-making or stop them from at least making an offer to Gardiner, but instead, they opted to go with a third pairing, depth addition.

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The second rumored issue is that Gardiner has a back injury that is looming, which seems to be the reason teams are pulling away. But as fans, take a moment and step into the seat of Steve Yzerman and evaluate this. ONLY focusing on defenseman free agents, going into July 1st, why is Jake Gardiner not a top target?

1. He is (arguably) the best defenseman on the market
2. The back issue is a chance/risk that the organization should be willing to take coming out of a rebuild.
3. A reliable number two defenseman helps the Red Wings defensive core get stronger as well as provide rookies like Filip Hronek and Dennis Cholowski to develop with good veterans.
4. Gardiner slides into a leadership role, not actually as a captain, but almost like a Mike Green or Trevor Daley who has a much better output offensively.

These reasons really prove that the Detroit Red Wings should have targeted Gardiner rather than Nemeth.  Think about it this way; anyone can come up with reasons why Gardiner should have been targeted. Let’s talk about how Nemeth was a lousy pickup and the reasons why the signing was not the right one.

1. Nemeth is on a two-year deal creating a logjam at defense since his offensive output is minuscule at best.
2. If Nemeth plays on pairing two or three, that leaves even less room for an impact youngster like Hronek to Cholowski to get good playing experience alongside a PROVEN veteran defender.
3. Nemeth is going to become the next Jonathan Ericsson during his two-year stint here, while the team must already find a way to play six defensemen that best set us up for the future including people like Nemeth, Ericsson, and Daley.

Adding a third-pairing defenseman who offers little to no upside besides being a smidge better than Jonathan Ericcson was just flat out terrible.

Bringing in Gardiner would have allowed for a much better, serviceable, and reliable defenseman to join the Red Wings top pairing or second pairing, even if it wasn’t long-term. Gardiner remains on the market, Nemeth remains a signed Red Wings addition, but the Red Wings could have been much better off.