2021 Flames Report Card: Mark Giordano

Mark Giordano, Defence

56 GP, 9 G, 17 A, 26 Pts, 14 PIM, +5

53.12 CF%, 0.11 CFRel%, 52.63 xGF%, -1.80 xGFRel%

Individual Grades

MGMacGillivray: C When it comes to grading Giordano, I don’t really want to go below a C because we knew to expect some regression from him as he finally begins to show his age. I thought his second half of the season ended up being a lot better, most likely because he got paired with Chris Tanev, but overall I think he more or less met expectations that were realistic. If he ends up staying with the Flames next year, I think it would be best to play him in a third pairing role with occasional bump ups to the second pairing along with potentially some PP2 time and PK. If he ends up leaving to Seattle or being traded, it’ll be sad but probably the right move for both parties.

MarkParkinson14: D Look, I get no joy giving Mark Giordano this grade at all. He’ll go down as one of my favourite Flames of all time, but he’s done. Toast. He probably should have walked away after last season, but he’s a competitor and you know that’s not an option. As you’ll read below from Gordie, he’s not even close to the same player that won the Norris Trophy two seasons ago. Doesn’t that seem like it happened in another life time? This past season The Captain was just there and his leadership skills seemed to be on the decline as well. His 26 points were the lowest he’s collected since 2012-13 where he had 15 in 47 games and his 6.3 shooting percentage was 8th worst on the Flames amoung Calgary’s regulars. It’s time that both parties move on from each other which is something I don’t think any of us were thinking back in 2018-19.

MadelineCampbell: C The aging curve is undefeated, so with that in mind, I think I came into this season with relatively low expectations for Giordano. And maybe low is even too harsh of a word—I think my expectations were pretty reasonable for a 37 year old defenseman still being given a decent workload. And all that said, I think I'm coming away from this season pretty straight down the middle on Giordano. The start of the season was rough, but he did seem to stabilize as the season went on, and the underlying numbers were good, and he was still able to chip in a nice bit of scoring. He was fine, and that’s really all I’m expecting at this point.

Gordie.Taylor: C The decline post-Norris has been harsher than expected, but I saw an improvement in the Captain’s game as the season wore on. Since the bubble last year and a good chunk of the beginning of this season, Gio had not only not looked himself, he looked downright bad. However with Noah Hanifin going down and Rasmus Andersson never really working out on the powerplay, Gio took advantage of the Tanev effect while also looking fairly decent back on the first PP unit. I call into question his leadership abilities with how fragile and uninterested the Flames still seem, but he tied for 7th in defenceman goals which cannot be discredited with him now at 37 years old.

MilhouseFirehouse: D

RenuSahota: F

Readers: C

Final Grade: C-

by Michael MacGillivray