Seattle Kraken defenseman Mark Giordano was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday, the teams announced.
Seattle also sent center Colin Blackwell to the Maple Leafs and retained 50% of Giordano’s salary cap. In return, the Kraken expansion received a second-round draft pick this year and next, as well as a third-round pick in 2024.
Giordano, 38, became the Kraken’s first captain after spending 15 seasons with Calgary. Giordano will become an unrestricted free agent this summer, and earlier this month he met with Seattle general manager Ron Francis to discuss his future. According to sources, Giordano has expressed a desire to be traded for an opponent so he can compete for the Stanley Cup this spring.
The Maple Leafs are in the top five on offense in terms of goals per game, but are looking to shore up — and retool — their defense to make it past the first round of the playoffs for the first time since 2013.
Last month, the Maple Leafs sent forward Nick Ritchie and a conditional draft pick to Arizona in exchange for defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin, who spent most of March in Toronto’s third pair. And later on Sunday, they sent defenseman Travis Dermott, who’s been pretty beat up lately, to the Vancouver Canucks for a third-round draft pick this summer.
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Kraken had high hopes that the 38-year-old Giordano would secure the lead among the veterans so they could compete for a playoff spot — much like the Vegas Golden Knights did in their first season. However, Seattle has never been like Vegas. Kraken are firmly in last place in the Pacific division and last week they took Giordano out of the roster to keep him out of injury.
Ever since Giordano’s 74 points to win the Norris Trophy in 2018-19 with the Flames, Giordano’s numbers have dropped. But this season, he still has 23 points in 55 games.
Giordano is in the final year of a six-year contract with maximum payouts of $6.75 million per season. According to sources, Giordano has an open mind about his future.
Kraken, meanwhile, gained six peaks from two trades ahead of Monday’s trading deadline. Seattle, looking forward to developing a team in the draft, now has 10 picks in this year’s draft and owns four of the top 64 picks in each of the next two drafts.
This is the second year in a row that the Maple Leafs have added another team’s captain before the trade deadline. Last year, Toronto acquired former Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno for a first-round pick.
Toronto is firmly in the Eastern Conference playoffs, but its seeding is in question. The Maple Leafs and Tampa Bay Lightning have been battling for the #2 seed in the Atlantic Division, but the wildcard seeded Boston Bruins are not far from catching up with Toronto.
If the season had ended on Sunday, the Maple Leafs would have faced the Lightning in the first round.