Does Herb Gardiner Belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

Herb Gardiner may have been one of the premier defencemen of his era, and was awarded the Hart Trophy as a result.

But how good was he really? Can we even know? How do we evaluate defencemen from the 1920s who didn’t score a lot? Can we trust Hart trophy wins from the past when we know they sometimes awarded them for controversial reasons?

Listen to us talk about Herb Gardiner here:

Herb Gardiner’s Career:

• NHL:
  • 1926-29; 3 seasons, all quality (by DPS)
  • Totals:
    • 10G,
    • 10A for
    • 20P in
    • 100 games
  • 82-game average: 8G, 8A for 16P
  • 3-year peak would be the same as that’s all he played
  • Playoffs:
    • 1A for 1P in 9 games
  • Adjusted:
    • Hockey-Reference:
      • 18G,
      • 57A for
      • 75P
      • Adjusted 82-game average: 15G, 47A for 62 (+46P per 82 games, so probably absurd)
    • VsX: Doesn’t qualify
  • Trades:
    • Traded into the NHL at 35 for cash
    • Loaned to Chicago at 37, returned to Montreal before he turned 38
    • Traded to Boston at 38 for cash
    • Traded out of the NHL at 39 for cash
• WCHL:
  • 1921-26; 5 seasons, 3 quality
  • Totals:
    • 33G (as high as 18th All Time),
    • 18A (as high as 15th All Time) for
    • 51P (as high as 17th All Time) in 1
    • 30 games (as high as 4th All Time)
  • Per Game: If the qualifier is set to 82 games it’s unlikely but Gardiner might be as high as
    • 13th All Time in APG and
    • 14th in PPG
  • 30-game average: 8G, 4A for 12P
  • Playoffs: 3G, 1A for 4P in 11 games
  • Never traded.

Herb Gardiner’s Accomplishments:

• NHL:
  • Hart (‘27)
  • Top Player:
    • Best Defensive Player (by DPS) once (‘27),
    • Top 5 twice (‘28)
  • No offensive accomplishments or presence on leaderboards
• WCHL: Never on any leaderboards

Great Teams:

• WCHL:
  • Best D (by points) on one WCHL Champion (‘24 Tigers),
  • Unknown role on one WCHL Runner Up (‘25 Tigers)