Jerome Miron-Imagn Images
When an NHL player is close to the end of their on-ice career, there can be a reticence for them to accept that they’re not going to be the first choice (or the second or third choice) of hockey’s top teams.
Last season, the biggest example was longtime star forward Phil Kessel, who waited in vain all season to get a team to employ him – and who still is waiting for an NHL contract to keep him from officially retiring.
But this year, there’s a new prominent name waiting, hoping he’ll get another shot at playing and winning a Stanley Cup: veteran defenseman and recent Toronto Maple Leafs player Mark Giordano. Last season, Giordano was the oldest player in the NHL at 40 years old, but he’s clearly not ready to hang up his skates just yet, based on reports in early September.
Giordano is a Toronto native, so he realized a dream by playing for his hometown team. However, like many players near the end of their playing days, Giordano was a healthy scratch at times during the season and throughout the playoffs, logging only 46 games before his contract expired last spring. He also dealt with a concussion before the post-season as well. And now, Giordano is playing the waiting game, hoping an opportunity arises either due to an injury situation or an underachieving defense corps.
Ideally, he’d get another kick at the can with the Leafs, but if he’s truly intent on eking out one more season, Giordano has no choice but to be a beggar, not a chooser. And in his defense, in the right situation, he could have an impact on a Cup-contending squad, even after turning 41 on Oct. 3.
The Leafs’ defense corps is relatively deep, with Giordano’s former ‘D’ partner Timothy Liljegren being a healthy scratch Wednesday night in Montreal. So it would take a confluence of events for the Leafs to consider Giordano a realistic option. But, like Kessel, Giordano could wind up twisting in the wind, waiting for an offer that never comes.
As a Norris Trophy winner, Giordano has earned all the laurels that will come his way when he does officially retire. But few NHLers get to author the conclusion of their career, and Giordano is in that large group of veterans. If the end really did come last season, he’s got a ton to be proud of – including 1,148 regular-season games and leading the Calgary Flames and Seattle Kraken as their captain – and he can go out gracefully.
That said, you can’t fault him for hanging on to his status as an NHLer as hard as he can. Giordano has earned the right to take his time and see what fate has in store for him this year, and if he does get another chance – even in a part-time depth role – he’s going to be thrilled with the opportunity.
He may no longer play more than 20 minutes per game – heck, even 18 minutes a night would be too much for him – but Giordano wants to completely empty his competitive tank, and there were more to his numbers than his nine points in 46 games. No other Maple Leafs defenseman was on the ice for as many chances-for per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 than Giordano, and he had the second-best expected goals percentage as well, according to naturalstattrick.com. Sure, he wasn’t playing against the top players on the opposing team, and he started more than half his shifts in the offensive zone, but a team can address an offensive need by looking to Giordano.
Giordano has earned a positive reputation with all the hard work he’s put in leading up to today. Even a depth role where he plays here and there could allow him to impart the right plays, tips and decisions to younger players while leading by example on every shift he takes.
If Giordano doesn’t get any offers and does call it a career, he’ll still be celebrated as one of the top blueliners of his generation. But while no team will see him as a charity case that deserves to go out precisely when he wants to, there’s still potential value in having him on an NHL squad. Either way, he can rest assured he’s done everything in his power to squeeze out every last drop of his NHL career.
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