Flames Captain Left Unprotected

The Calgary Flames have chosen not to protect captain Mark Giordano. The Seattle Kraken will now have the opportunity to claim the veteran defenseman.

#Flames protection list:

Backlund, Dube, Gaudreau, Lindholm, Mangiapane, Monahan, Tkachuk

Andersson, Hanifin, Tanev

Markstrom
— Pat Steinberg (@Fan960Steinberg) July 18, 2021

Giordano has spent the entirety of his 15-year NHL career with the Flames. The undrafted defenseman has carved out a great tenure in Calgary, as evidenced by his Norris Trophy win during the 2018-19 season. In 949 games with the Flames, he has scored 143 goals and recorded 509 total points. Those are fantastic numbers for a defenseman.

This season was a bit of a down year offensively for the 37-year-old, though. In 56 games, he had nine goals and 26 total points. Yet, even with the decrease in production, he still is putting up respectable totals. It is hard to argue against the claim that he is a top-four defenseman at this stage of his career, so perhaps the Kraken could select him at the Expansion Draft.

Giordano has one year left on his contract and it carries a $6.75 million cap hit. Given the fact that it expires after this upcoming season, adding him does not come with much risk for the Kraken. However, there is a lot of available talent for them to choose from, so they may decide to bring in other expensive players.

If Giordano ends up in Seattle, he had an amazing run with the Flames.