Maple Leafs’ Mark Giordano Closing in on Shot Block Record … But There’s a Catch

Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Mark Giordano heads into Friday’s game against the Minnesota Wild just three shots back of Kris Russell for the all-time shots blocked record, but stats uncovered at NHL.com indicate Zdeno Chara had more.

Mark Giordano is three-shot blocks away from passing former teammate Kris Russell for the all-time lead in NHL shot blocks.

It's a testament to the Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman's longevity and career which includes a Norris Trophy win in 2019.

But the record comes with a huge caveat. 

When looking up the record on NHL.com's record page, Kris Russell does indeed have the record with 2044. Giordano trails behind with 2041. 

But when you look it up through NHL.com's scoring per game page, the stats show that Zdeno Chara had more blocked shots with 2,233.

Chara played in 1,680 games so this number would be reasonable. I reached out to the league for clarification. It turns out shot blocks were calculated before 2005-06 but not "consistently" and the scoring per-game report includes those shot blocks in the numbers.

I reached out to the NHL's stats department to get some clarification on the inconsistency in the numbers.

"The Scoring per Game report at NHL.com/Stats seems to include his (Chara's) totals from 1997-98 to 2003-04 – select games logged them during those seasons, creating incomplete blocked shots data. Therefore, would recommend using Records.NHL.com or the Miscellaneous report and going with the 'since 2005-06' disclaimer."

So there you have it. Giordano has the shot block record since 2005-06, but since shot blocks were collected on a consistent basis, they can only go back to that season.

But that's not going to take away from the Leafs celebrating Giordano's accomplishments.  

"It's a tough thing to track, you can't really stop the game and acknowledge it," Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly said about Giordano when he grabs the record. "Maybe we can get him like a golden shin pad or something."

The 39-year-old Giordano said he's been using the same shin pads for over 10 years as he doesn't like how the new ones feel. He replaces the padding underneath it every now and then. 

The hardest shot block Giordano's ever face?

"I got hit with a Mathieu Schneider slapshot on the side of the head that I have a pretty scar from it," he recalled. "That one hurt."