The Cardiff Devils bolstered their blue line with yet another superb summer addition.
The acquisition of Sam Jardine is a somewhat surprising but certainly exciting news for fans of the Welsh club.
As someone who extensively covers the Toronto Marlies, I was expecting the Toronto organisation to shore up the 25 year old defenseman to one-year AHL deal to provide them with some depth but also solidify the Newfound Growlers (ECHL) defensive core.
Jardine suited up on 36 occasions for the Marlies through 2018-19, accruing seven points (1-6-7) of which all were at even strength play.
As Toronto struggled with injuries throughout the season, Jardine often found himself in the top four and paired with top prospect Timothy Liljegren when the Swedish defenseman was healthy.
The left-handed defenseman possesses a booming shot but curbed his natural attacking instincts for the most part in the AHL and was a very solid and dependable performer in a role perhaps above his standing.
The Alberta native has a well-rounded game, skates well without being explosive in that regard and is capable of playing a physical game but doesn’t rely on it – he’s a more dangerous opponent with the puck on his stick looking to turn defense into offense.
In the ECHL, Newfoundland benefitted from his performances with Jardine accumulating eight assists in ten regular season games. Fast forward to the playoffs and he added a further eight points (1-7-8) in 23 games as he more than played his part in Newfoundland winning the Kelly Cup during their inaugural season.
It’s the second championship in three years for the Canadian, who was a part of the Colorado Eagles (now an AHL club) 2017 success.
It’s becoming less of a factor in hockey across the world but Sam Jardine can also be relied upon to drop the gloves if required and I’m sure that will endear him to Cardiff fans should the need arise.
In summary the former Chicago Blackhawks draft pick is an excellent signing by Cardiff, no doubt one that the management group put a lot of time and effort into and I’m certain (barring extenuating circumstances) that Jardine will prove a huge success.
If you’d like to find out a little more about Sam Jardine check out ’20 questions’ during his time with the Toronto Marlies.
UK Hockey Blog 
[…] this point, it is important to give a shoutout to Mark Rackham (@MarkUKLeaf) who wrote a piece before the season about Jardine and it seemed I should have listened to him more, because in his […]