The Toronto Maple Leafs have signed an extremely team-friendly extension with defenseman Mark Giordano, paying him $800,000 per season for two years.
Toronto acquired Giordano, the 2019 Norris Trophy winner, at the 2022 Trade Deadline from the Seattle Kraken. The first captain in Kraken history had new life breathed into his game upon joining Toronto. While he saw more limited ice time, the ageing defenseman showed that he could get back to his elite game given less pressure and minutes. Averaging under 20 minutes per game in Toronto for the first time since 2009, Giordano had a very respectable 12 points in 20 regular-season games. He added on two assists in seven playoff games.
While broken up in the playoffs, he and Timothy Liljegren looked absolutely spectacular for Toronto post-deadline. With similar play styles, Giordano seemed to be the appropriate mentor for the young Liljegren. It’s hard to imagine that they won’t see some more time together in 2022-23.
The 50+ point seasons of yore certainly aren’t in the cards for Giordano moving forward. However, he’s shown the ability over the past few seasons to maintain his defensive game even as his point totals fall. He’s still much more valuable than a standard seventh defenseman, immediately making his contract a steal. If he’s able to maintain that level of defensive play or even just limit its decline, this becomes an extremely valuable signing to add defensive depth on the left side while Rasmus Sandin continues to develop his game.
Giordano was also the recipient of the 2020 Mark Messier Leadership Award, evidencing his long-standing reputation of being a strong voice in the room. Over 1024 career games, the 6’1″ / 200 lb defenseman has 151 goals, 393 assists, and 544 points.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was first to report the deal.
gdbyers
What??
MoneyBallJustWorks
clearly the hometown discount sell was easy
Dubas- “So Mark as you know, we have a two year window left with Austin”
Mark- “where I do sign?”
NoRegretzkys
38 year old Mark probably wouldn’t be playing much longer than that 2-year deal anyway.
DarkSide830
Leafs get all the Toronto kids to sign with them for cheap and still cant make it out of the 1st round. this will be just another example.
bhd360
Yeah all the Toronto kids…except for Mitch Marner who instead chose to bend them over for every dollar he possibly could.
wreckage
Tavares was cheap?
bigdaddyt
Compared to the crazy 12-13 million the sharks were reportedly trying to sign him for yaaa.. but other than that guys a anchor of a contract soon enough
wreckage
Tavares has the 6th highest cap in the league. He is not cheap by any means.
MoneyBallJustWorks
yeah all. Spezza, Giordano, Simmonds, end of list.
lapcheung39
I want Thornton back!
dave frost nhlpa
Best signing of the offseason for the price.
User 318310488
Two more seasons before Matthews signs a six year 90 million dollar deal with Arizona. The Giordano signing Is solid but with the out of control media and no goaltending It’s just gonna be tough to win In Toronto.
NoRegretzkys
Sheesh, the offseason hasn’t even started yet and you’ve already suggested the Leafs will do nothing else.
User 318310488
I think the Leafs will do as much as they can this summer to Improve Including trade Nylander.
wreckage
If the Leafs don’t like Nylander and his contract, why do you think anyone else would?
fun guy
Yep, a top player in the league wants to sign with a team that can’t make monthly rent (or sign players for $90m)
They’re too dumb to play with themselves
why would matthews sign with houstons ahl club?
amk1920
Matthews will either go to the Kings or Rangers
NoRegretzkys
He was a point per game performer this year. Lots of teams would desire the skillset he brings. It’s not that the Leafs don’t want him, he is just the easiest piece to move to address an area they are weak in, which would be a little more…truculence. A Marchand type player. But they let one go last offseason with Hyman which was a mistake. Alternatively, a swap for a big, strong, top-4 RHD. Someone like Parayko. Those names obviously may not be available or may cost more than Nylander straight up, but just an example of what the teams needs on top of addressing the issue between the pipes.
wreckage
Nylander has 1 season at almost a PPG in his career with nearly a 7M cap hit. That is not a highly desirable player to acquire.
MoneyBallJustWorks
while I am on the side of move Nylander if you can improve the makeup of the front 9, he would be highly desired if he was available. skill wise there are few who would be on par. yes his lack of backchecking is a negative but some teams (see phili) don’t believe in defense anyway.
User 318310488
Nylander Is an elite forward! I just think that the Leafs will have to part with a player of his caliber to gain some cap latitude so that they can address other roster weaknesses, I wonder how many phone calls Verbeek has received about the availability of John Gibson?
gowings2008
Dubas continues to sign these vets who used to be stars expecting them to fill holes. This won’t work yet again. He’d be better finding cheap and young depth options that are on the rise and could outperform their contracts. All the recent Cup winners have found a way doing this, but Dubas refuses and opts to chase the “big name,” and not necessarily the right one.
Cedric Lee
What are you talking about? The best contract they have is literally a young player that he signed to a two year minimum contract. He has also brought young players over from Russia to fill out the depth chart as well
gowings2008
And how have those signings panned out? Zero playoff series wins says a lot about the players they’ve brought in.
MoneyBallJustWorks
this is just a stupid comment. he’s brought in vets to round out a young roster. Spezza is a 4th line player getting less than 10 mins a night. Gio was a third pairing guy.
plus it’s a $800,000 deal. not much cheaper you can get in the NHL.
the lightning have acquired vets at the deadline in each of the last two Stanley Cup years but yes I’m sure they should have just went with the inexperienced rookie.
MoneyBallJustWorks
yes the few veterans they paid league minimum or near to it clearly are worse than an inexperienced player.
correlation is not causation