

Jake Gardiner made his NHL debut with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2011 and spent the first eight years of his NHL career in Toronto. Now, the 29-year-old is preparing for his first season as a member of the Hurricanes after inking a four-year deal with Carolina earlier this month.

Gardiner hasn’t even been a member of the Hurricanes for a full month yet, but he’s definitely going to need some more time to get used to his new home after spending the first eight years of his career in one of the biggest hockey markets in the world. Here’s what happened during one of his first encounters with Hurricanes fans.



Jake Gardiner on life in Carolina: "I can be pretty anonymous here. Especially now. My first fan experience was at the golf tournament, this guy came up and said, 'Can you take a photo of me with the mascot?' So I took the picture of him and the mascot. And I was on the team." — Emily Kaplan (@emilymkaplan) September 22, 2019

Perhaps the fan knew who Gardiner was at the time but he just really wanted a photo with Stormy, or maybe he just had no clue since he’s only ever seen Gardiner in the blue and white and he’s only been a member of the Hurricanes for a few weeks.



Our defense just got even BETTER 💪 A post shared by Carolina Hurricanes (@canes) on Sep 7, 2019 at 7:23am PDT

The 17th overall pick in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft played 551 games in a Maple Leafs uniform and registered 45 goals and 245 points in that span.

(H/T Twitter/emilymkaplan)