MINNEAPOLIS — When Saskatoon Blades basic supervisor Colin Priestner broke the information to Evan Gardner following a Nov. 30 sport that he didn’t get invited to Hockey Canada’s choice camp for the 2025 World Junior staff, he instantly broke down into tears.
“What else can I do?” Gardner requested.
Nothing, Priestner informed him.
“He had the best numbers of anybody, probably the most wins, and he did it final yr too,” Priestner stated on a telephone name again in December. “I wouldn’t be shocked if he’s the starter or the backup subsequent yr, and also you’ve simply acquired to mud your self off and show them flawed.”
Eight months later, nearly to the day, Gardner was standing inside Ridder Area sporting Hockey Canada exercise gear on the World Junior Summer season Showcase, the place he’s vying to make the 2026 staff in Minneapolis.
“I used to be fairly heartbroken to not get an invitation at Christmastime,” Gardner stated. “Final summer season, I didn’t get an invitation both, so I used to be actually working in direction of that winter, and to listen to that I didn’t get it, it sort of tore me aside. So I actually put in a ton of time into my craft and a ton of labor with my goalie coach (Jeff Harvey) again in Saskatoon to hopefully get an invitation right here, and it panned out, so I’m tremendous pumped. That is one thing that’s tremendous particular for me. It’s one thing I’ve been desirous to do for a protracted, very long time.”
He’s not the front-runner. Returnees Carter George and Jack Ivankovic each performed properly in Canada’s disappointing quarterfinal exit in 2025 and have been despatched residence early on Thursday to go away Gardner and Sharks first-round choose Joshua Ravensbergen to play Canada’s last two video games towards Sweden and the USA.
In the intervening time, he’s vying to be the staff’s No. 3. However he’s used to a little bit adversity.
It’s the 19-year-old goaltender’s first Hockey Canada expertise. He by no means performed for them on the U17 or U18 ranges.
He grew up in Fort St. John, British Columbia, a city of about 20,000 individuals, they usually solely had AA hockey on the time. He was at all times on the A staff till he moved to Kelowna to enroll at RINK Hockey Academy.
He was a third-round choose within the 2021 WHL bantam draft and is the primary to say that if it weren’t for the delayed COVID draft pushing it from the spring and into December, he would have been drafted a lot later. His play with the RINK Hockey Academy’s U18 staff within the fall that yr earned him the third-round choice.
He didn’t make the Blades as a 16-year-old and was their backup to begin his NHL Draft season the next yr. When NHL Central Scouting launched its gamers to look at record for the 2024 draft, he was given a “W” score, which signifies a sixth/seventh spherical candidate. On their midterm record that yr, he was their No. 16-ranked North American goalie.
He’s additionally on the smaller aspect (Hockey Canada lists him at 6-foot and 175 kilos, and the WHL lists him at 6-foot-1 and 177 kilos).
However he simply saved enjoying properly, and because the yr went on, he took the online in Saskatoon from the veteran Austin Elliott (who backstopped the London Knights to an OHL title and Memorial Cup this spring after the Blades launched him handy the online to Gardner). By yr’s finish, he’d posted a .927 save proportion. Regardless of having performed simply 30 WHL video games, NHL Central Scouting moved him as much as No. 7 on their last record. He then posted a .910 save proportion in one other 15 playoff video games.
The Blue Jackets chosen him within the second spherical of the draft and made him the fourth goalie chosen after Ilya Nabokov, Mikhail Yegorov and George, who was chosen three spots in entrance of him. There have been members of the Blue Jackets group who appreciated him higher than George, and it turned an inside debate for them forward of the draft.
Gardner has felt the love from the Blue Jackets, too.
“Their goalie workers is unbelievable there, they usually have a lot religion in me,” he stated. “They’ve handled me nice, I’ve realized rather a lot from them, and I can’t watch for what the longer term holds.”
After a stable post-draft season as Saskatoon’s starter, Gardner now has a .917 save proportion throughout 74 profession WHL regular-season video games and has already signed his entry-level contract with the Blue Jackets. Within the spring, he made his AHL debut with the Cleveland Monsters and stopped 16 of 19 pictures in a 3-0 loss.
When he maps out his path, he stops himself to chuckle. The third-round choice within the WHL draft lit a hearth below him.
“There have been, I consider, six goalies taken in entrance of me (within the WHL),” he identified, remembering the quantity.
Getting lower by the Blades at 16 grew that fireplace.
“I used to be simply hoping a staff would take a flier on me. That’s all I wished, was simply to indicate a staff what I used to be able to, after which I had an important second half and sort of took over within the playoffs,” he stated.
As soon as Gardner began getting begins early on in his draft yr, Dan Da Silva, Saskatoon’s head coach, stated they may see the breakout second half coming.
“They have been at all times high quality begins and we had a extremely good staff in entrance of him, however there got here a degree the place we simply felt that we have been most snug with him again there because the final line of defence and for a 17-year-old goalie to provide you that sort of confidence in your possibilities to win a sport, that speaks volumes to the work he had put in to get himself to that,” Da Silva stated on a telephone name on Wednesday.
Gardner has finished it whereas managing Sort 1 diabetes.
“He’s beloved by all of his teammates. He’s a highly regarded man within the room. He’s a really happy-go-lucky man. He’s at all times acquired a smile on his face. He’s straightforward to speak to,” Da Silva stated. “He clearly does rather a lot there along with his diabetes state of affairs and handles that extraordinarily properly, and mature past his years for somebody having to cope with that.”
He was recognized eight years in the past this summer season, when he fell sick on a visit along with his mother and father to Kelowna for a Blue Jays baseball camp and needed to be hospitalized. His mother and father had seen some signs crop up, together with some weight reduction. He nonetheless has to verify his blood sugar ranges throughout video games, although he not has to take a finger-prick check to take action and as an alternative makes use of Dexcom, a glucose monitoring system on his telephone.
“I’ve a couple of issues which are linked to me. I’ve a pump,” he stated, lifting his proper sleeve to disclose it on his shoulder. “Throughout intermissions, I’m at all times checking it. Plenty of snacks throughout the intermissions simply to verify I’m not going low throughout the sport.”
He additionally missed all of February final season with a lower-body damage.
Hockey Canada — who have been in contact with Harvey and Monsters goalie coach Brad Thiessen about Gardner via final season, even after they didn’t invite him to choice camp — have been impressed by how he managed the starter workload, how he performed as soon as he returned in March from his damage and the way he performed in his AHL debut.
Harvey and Thiessen additionally raved about him to Dan De Palma, Group Canada’s goalie coach.
“Evan’s been enjoying good objective for a very long time now, and I perceive why he’d be disillusioned (final December) and rightly so, however he simply saved enjoying good,” De Palma stated. “Evan has earned it. He earned the suitable to be right here, and arguably he may have been right here earlier than, however he’s right here now, which is nice.”
De Palma describes Gardner as a really sound, technical, aggressive goalie who doesn’t make errors. In working with him this week, he has discovered him to be very coachable as properly.
“So he’s acquired that expertise, he’s acquired that work ethic, after which he’s capable of proceed to study,” De Palma stated. “Actually well mannered, respectful, participating. He’s only a tremendous younger man, and I’ve heard rather a lot about him from Jeff and Brad, they usually couldn’t communicate extremely sufficient about him, and I feel he has even exceeded what I assumed he can be.”
De Palma, who was a small goalie himself, doesn’t see dimension in his evaluations both. (With Gardner, George and Ivankovic, three of Canada’s goalies on the summer season showcase have been on the smaller aspect.)
“I don’t have a look at peak, I don’t have a look at a complete lot of that when it comes to something. It’s simply ‘who’s going to cease the puck?’ and clearly there’s extra to it than that and that’s oversimplified, and for certain a man that’s taller has a little bit little bit of a bonus, however on the finish of the day if he’s one of the best man for the job to assist us win a gold medal then that’s all that we care about,” De Palma stated.
In his debut within the Purple-White sport, Gardner stopped 14 of 17 pictures in a 4-3 shootout loss, however two of the objectives got here on the ability play, and the opposite was with the opposing internet empty. He additionally stopped the primary 5 pictures he confronted within the shootout, earlier than lastly giving up the winner within the sixth spherical in a little bit of a duel with Ravensbergen.
Da Silva has at all times been most impressed by Gardner’s potential to learn performs.
“He’s a really good goaltender. He can learn shooters rather well, he can learn how performs are growing and is aware of the place everyone is on the ice and if there’s guys backdoor or excessive slot. He’s at all times acquired his head on a swivel, and he’s at all times checking and scanning the ice,” he stated. “He’s very sound positionally. He doesn’t get out of place. You don’t see him scrambling or sliding previous his posts or getting out of place very a lot in any respect. He is aware of his crease very properly, he is aware of his posts very properly, and he simply makes use of his dimension. He’s very, very calm in there.”
Gardner believes his skating is definitely his No. 1 attribute.
“I’m capable of put myself in spots, my habits, and the little issues you may choose up on in case you actually watch me that I consider assist set me up for achievement down the street and forward of what’s occurring (in) the play,” he stated. “After which when it comes all the way down to it, I simply discover a option to cease pucks, which is what everybody needs, proper? I compete on it, and I simply discover a option to cease pucks.”
Final yr, Priestner estimated Gardner alone was in all probability price a 3rd of the Blades’ wins.
“He’s simply so constant. He not often has a foul sport, and if he does, it’s a one-off,” Priestner stated. “He’s so projectable as a result of he’s so constant. He doesn’t have these video games the place he’s not superb; he’s simply at all times actually good.”
After another yr within the WHL with the Blades, they assume he’ll supply that for the Monsters after which the Blue Jackets sometime, too.
“We’re fairly biased, however he’s a particular goalie,” Priestner stated.
(Images courtesy of Steve Hiscock / WHL)
