In a race against Father Time, Mark Giordano used the full resources of the Toronto Maple Leafs’ training facility to prepare for his 17th NHL season.
When Mark Giordano signed a two-year, $1.6 million extension with the Toronto Maple Leafs in the spring, it gave him a chance to settle into his hometown and spend every day in Etobicoke making use of the team’s practice facility.
“I’ve really learned a lot being here,” Giordano told SI. “You can be really strong but not really be able to use it out there and be efficient, which I think I was for a little bit. But now I’m learning how to use my strength better."
It’s been well documented how much the Maple Leafs spend on their staff behind the scenes. Ten different staffers work in player development alone and many more who work in medical, nutrition, sports science and other medical departments.
So a different perspective held some weight for the 2019 Norris Trophy winner, who has become a model for longevity in the NHL.
“I look at a guy like Giordano who had, between skills coaches, strength coaches, nutritionists and culinary staff, it’s the whole operation that can help a player optimize themselves during the offseason,” Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said.
So what did the 39-year-old do to make sure he can still be an effective defenseman in the NHL?
It came down to training differently.
“I put a lot of emphasis into activating my core and getting into lower positions, squats and stuff, getting into lower positions where it’s harder to get into,” Giordano explained. “As you get older, lifting heavy becomes less important. You’ve got to be smarter with your lifts, but you still want to stay strong and explosive.”
As players get older, there is a recognition that the body takes more time to get warm. While taking more time to warmup is key, so is activation of the right muscles at the right time.
“If you’re younger you can definitely do more power stuff and explosive stuff all the time, but I think as you get older you become more aware of wear and tear on your body, especially your back and knees,” Giordano said. “At this point I feel like I’m a pretty strong guy over time that I’ve developed that strength, I can maintain that. It’s more about being way more efficient and getting into better positions and that’s what I learned.”
Giordano had the benefit of learning at a young age the importance of fitness and how it is tied to performance. As a 20-year-old, he showed up to Calgary Flames summer training camp in 2004 a little overweight. He had the strength, but his conditioning wasn’t there.
The Flames built up the habits that he has kept to this day and that period of Giordano's life changed his career trajectory in ways he never expected.
Giordano spent a couple of years with Calgary’s farm system and got called up for a total of 55 regular season games over two seasons, but eventually departed for the KHL during the 2007-08 year due to a lack of a guarantee of regular playing time with the Flames.
He returned the following season and won a spot out of training camp.
An undrafted invitee to Flames camp a long time ago, Giordano absorbed everything and turned himself into a trophy-winning defenseman who has played over 1,000 NHL games.
Last year, Giordano said that despite his age, he hasn’t put a lot of miles on his body. But he has certainly preserved it to a point where he feels the intel from Toronto’s staff can extend his career further.
Given what he’s already done with little expectation, it’s a safe bet that as he ages, he can work smarter.
"I started to change about seven-to-eight years ago when the science started coming into the training and we really started to pay attention to that, but being in Toronto at this facility I had the benefit of getting good instruction both on and off the ice."