Mark Giordano joining the Toronto Maple Leafs at the 2021-22 NHL trade deadline was looked at by some as another typical example of a Toronto native player joining the team far past his prime, expected to help at a level he couldn’t provide anymore. In reality, he came in and gave them a well-respected veteran voice in the dressing room, some rock-solid defensive play from the bottom pair, and a pleasantly surprising ability to step up in the wake of injury and eat some meaningful minutes. If that wasn’t enough to win the fans over, he re-upped with the Leafs on a two-year contract at an annual cap hit of $800,000 – a modest pay cut of almost $6 million.
Giordano continued to provide a steady presence for the Leafs and, especially in the first year of his new deal, was asked to do a lot more than he should have been. As things will typically go with older defencemen, his legs caught up to him pretty quickly and it showed by the time the end of the 2023-24 season rolled around. Now 41 years old, the undrafted veteran of 18 years has repeatedly expressed interest in playing for another year, whether that’s with the Maple Leafs or another team. And, according to his agent Ritch Winter (via Sportsnet senior columnist Eric Francis), the Leafs are among the teams who have expressed mutual interest in a return.
The Leafs currently have seven defencemen vying for an NHL job on the back end, eight if you want to include the mysteriously-still-unsigned Jani Hakanpaa on that list, so it’s fair to say that if the Leafs bring Giordano back, it will be on a one-year deal and should come with the expectation that he won’t be regularly playing games. He only played in 46 games last season, tallying nine points, and he didn’t suit up for them in the playoffs. Still, the analytics favour him, and it’s never a bad thing to have a voice like Giordano in your dressing room.
If the Leafs don’t get him back, it would feel appropriate to have him return for one final season with the Calgary Flames, despite Conroy’s belief that there isn’t a fit there. The Flames likely won’t be competitive this season and the reunion would surely touch the hearts of their fans. The Leafs may not be too eager to use one of their contract slots on him, thus preventing the likes of Marshall Rifai and Topi Niemela from dipping their feet in the water and getting a taste of NHL action should injuries pop up, but again, having a guy like Giordano around the team even in the most limited of roles isn’t something anyone should be wasting energy complaining about.