Report: Mark Giordano Has 'Made The Decision That He’s Playing For A Few More Years’ Despite Uncertain Future With Maple Leafs
Giordano scored three goals and added six assists, totaling nine points in 46 regular season games in 2023-24.
The Toronto Maple Leafs, like many other teams across the NHL, are in the thick of things when it comes to decision-making with free agents, trades, and overall transactions – given the opening of free agency kicks off in nearly a week. With plenty of holes to fill on offense, defense, and in net, one question mark has been pinpointed on the future of defenseman and pending unrestricted free agent Mark Giordano.
Giordano, 40, was the oldest player in the NHL last year with many led to believe that this could be the end of the road for the Toronto native. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case. As reported in a notebook published by Kevin McGran of the Toronto Star on Thursday, Giordano has made it clear he intends to continue his professional hockey career next season.
“Mark has made the decision that he’s playing for a few more years,” said his agent, Rich Winter. “He feels very confident. He’s been talking to a lot of people who tell him: Don’t quit until they make you.”
Though it’s unclear whether the Maple Leafs themselves want the veteran defenseman back next fall, Giordano seems committed to playing for the foreseeable future.
“He clearly wants to play,” said Winter.
The Leafs acquired Giordano and Colin Blackwell in March of 2022 through a trade with the Seattle Kraken, who he captained, that sent two second-round picks (2022, 2023) along with a third-round selection in 2024 as part of the deal. The Kraken would retain 50 per cent of Giordano’s $6.75 million contract as part of the deal for the 2021-22 campaign before he would eventually re-up with the Leafs on a two-year $1.6 million deal carrying a cap hit of $800,000 a season – known as the so-called “hometown discount”.
That contract has now expired. Regardless of the next steps, Giordano has had a successful tenure in a Leafs uniform. In his first full season, many are quick to forget he carried a heavy load in 2022-23 with injuries to T.J. Brodie, Morgan Rielly, and Jake Muzzin – where he averaged over 23 minutes of ice time a night. In relation, he only missed four regular season games which saw him score four goals paired with 20 assists while appearing in all 11 of the team’s postseason games tacking on two additional assists.
In 2023-24, injuries, depth, and age seemed to slow him down and as a result, he didn’t see as much ice time. Playing in just 46 regular season games while sitting out for the duration of the postseason, Giordano scored three goals and added six assists for a total of nine points in 2023-24.
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Giordano is among five notable Maple Leafs blueliners that are unrestricted free agents on the club’s backend come July 1, as well as Joel Edmundson, Ilya Lyubushkin, T.J. Brodie, and John Klingberg. It remains to be seen if the Maple Leafs will offer Giordano another contract to remain in the blue and white uniform specifically, but the veteran still provides value with a plethora of experience as a former Norris Trophy Winner at age 35 and would undoubtedly be a valuable addition elsewhere.
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