Nonis told a Toronto radio station on Tuesday the 22-year-old would be available to play for coach Randy Carlyle Wednesday if ?he chooses to put him in.?
?The #FreeJakeGardiner tweet, Jake had nothing to do with that,? Nonis told Sportsnet 590 The FAN on Tuesday. ?You don?t hold that against a player. And you also don?t recall him because of it. Jake is recalled because he?s played well enough to be an option for us, to possibly be in the lineup and help the offensive part of our game.?
?Gard?s game has improved dramatically in the last 10 days to two weeks,? Nonis told the FAN. ?He?s kind of shown a lot of the speed ? puck-carrying, power-play ability ? that he showed last year. He was able to sustain it for three, four, five games in a row and became a real option for us.?