Maple Leafs buys Mark Giordano from Kraken

TORONTO – Mark Giordano comes home.

The Maple Leafs fielded the Toronto-born veteran defender along with center Colin Blackwell from the Seattle Kraken on Sunday for two second-round draft picks and a third-round pick.

“To be able to be a part of this further and to be my hometown is obviously a big bonus,” Giordano said at a conference. “But to get into a team that has a really good shot to obviously create damage in the playoffs is something I’m really excited about.”

Giordano should offer grit, responsibility in his own zone and lead to a blue line, which also recently added tough Ilya Lyubushkin in a trade with the Arizona Coyotes, and hopes Jake Muzzin returns from a concussion before the end of the regular season .

As part of the deal, Seattle will retain 50 percent of Giordano’s US $ 6.75 million salary for the remainder of the 2021-2022 campaign.

The 38-year-old pending unrestricted free agent spent his entire NHL career with the Calgary Flames before being suspended last summer by the Seattle expansion draft.

Kraken then named Giordano, who has six goals in 23 points and 55 games this season, as the first captain of the franchise.

The NHL trade deadline is set for Monday at 3 p.m.

The Leafs also made another move on Sunday, with deep defender Travis Dermott heading to the Vancouver Canucks for a third-round pick in 2022.

Giordano, who also served as Flames captain, is greeted by at least one familiar face in Toronto’s wardrobe after spending a lot of time with Leafs defender TJ Brodie in Calgary.

Toronto general manager Kyle Dubas told reporters earlier this month that his focus on the team’s attempts would be his back end.

Giordano, who won the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s top defender at age 35 in 2019, scored 149 goals and 532 points in 1,004 regular season games with the Flames and Kraken. He added seven points (one goal, six assists) and 23 playoff contests for Calgary.

Blackwell meanwhile have eight goals and 17 points in 38 games with the Kraken this season. The 28-year-old, who shot short against Toronto earlier this month, scored 23 goals and 49 points in 119 games with the Kraken, Nashville Predators and New York Rangers.

The Kraken received second-round picks in 2022 and 2023 along with a third-round pick in 2024 as part of the deal.

The Seattle deal marks the second time in so many seasons that the Leafs bought the captain of another team one day before the deadline after grabbing Nick Foligno from the Columbus Blue Jacket last year.

Toronto, which has not won a playoff series since 2004, currently sits third in the Atlantic Division, one point back at second-placed Tampa Bay Lightning and two at Boston.

The Florida Panthers’ first-place finish is six points ahead of Tampa.

The Panthers, Lightning and Bruins have all made significant moves in recent days, with Florida signing Philadelphia Flyers captain Claude Giroux and Montreal Canadiens defender Ben Chiarot, Tampa securing Bande Brandon Hagel from the Chicago Blackhawks, and Boston the blue liner Hampus Lindholm of Anaheim. Either.

And now the Leafs have their husband in Giordano.

This report from the Canadian Press was first published on March 20, 2022.

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