What If: Mark Giordano Gets Traded, Who’s The Next Captain?

There’s a decent chance the Calgary Flames and Mark Giordano might be moving on from each other before the start of the 2021-22 season. This could happen multiple ways, but with an expansion draft on the horizon that could be a scenario where Gio is moved. Whether it’s him not being protected and selected or being traded, it makes sense that it would be time for these two to part ways.

The Flames appear to be “re-tooling” on the fly, per usual, and Giordano has taken a STEEP dive since his Norris Trophy season of 2018-19. Since that season the current Flames Captain has played in 116 games and has 57 points. Sure, he’s a defenceman so take his offence as what it is, but he looks like a player who should have retired or been traded before the start of the Covid-19 shortened 2019-20 season. His last two campaigns were the first time in six seasons where he didn’t appear in the final voting results for the Norris Trophy and they were the first time in three years where he had more giveaways than takeaways.

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Another factor that could contribute to Giordano being moved was the emergence of Noah Hanifin and Chris Tanev as the Flames best defensive pairing in 2021. These two were a breath of fresh air on the blue line and their productivity pushed Gio down a pairing. now, the Flames could move either of those players as well, so everything is really up in the air. Giordano and Rasmus Andersson were “OK” together, but the latter had a “meh” season when everyone was expecting more. It’s funny to think of how T.J. Brodie’s game was always better when he was paired with Giordano, but you have to wonder if maybe Andersson suffered a but being paired with an aging player who looked very slow throughout the season.

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The worst part of typing all that is that I hated doing it. I love Mark Giordano. He’s been great with the Flames. He’s great in the community. If you needed a player who is just an all around good guy to be the public face of your franchise there is no better player than Gio. But where I’ll say he’s been lacking lately has also been in the leadership role of the locker room and bench. He has the same canned answers after most Flames losses and when things were going sideways to start the year Matthew Tkachuk was one of the only Flames players showing legit emotion on and off the ice.......and we all know how that went down.

So, to start, yes I think it’s time for the Flames and Mark Giordano to move on. The on ice and off ice effectiveness seems to be gone. Sure it leaves a hole in the Flames D pairings, but that can be worked out through trades and free agency. What it also leaves is a leadership void. Calgary could, if they move Giordano, do a season without a Captain and just having two Associates and a rotating third between home and the road (like they did with Backlund and Tkachuk). The Flames current A’s are Sean Monahan and Matthew Tkachuk. Neither of them (someday, maybe Tkachuk) are Captain material right now and Monahan could be a trade piece, so who knows about those two. Mikael Backlund? IF he isn’t traded or left unprotected in the expansion draft, he could be a likely candidate for the role. But I have a better solution and half of you might like this (that’s being VERY generous) and half of you will hate it. Forget stirring the pot, I’m going to shit right in the pot. I’d make the next Flames Captain.....Milan Lucic!

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Yup. That’s my choice. Now, this is all dependent on him not being moved, but I LOVE the idea of Lucic wearing the C for a season in Calgary. None of the Flames other players (Backlund notwithstanding) are ready to be Captain or are currently Captain material. I don’t doubt that Tkachuk or even Andrew Mangiapane will be ready for that mantle sooner or later, but if you needed someone in a pinch to be a place holder for a season or so, I’d be all in on Lucic. He’s already a leader on the ice, a guy who will stand up for his teammates. He’s also a leader off the ice, answering any and all questions after tough losses and he doesn’t sugar coat anything. You’ll never get a canned or cliche response from Looch. I can’t imagine there’s a player on the Flames roster as it is current constructed that doesn’t respect Milan Lucic. He’s a guy that when he speaks, people listen and as a 13 year NHL veteran and Stanley Cup Champion, there isn’t much he hasn’t seen. Though the question to ponder is, would he even want to be Captain? He’s an aging veteran coming to the end of his career and would he want the “hassle” of being a Captain or would he prefer to ride off into the sunset as “just a forward.” He has two years left on his current deal at $6 million per and has a M-NTC and NMC attached to it, so there’s that.

With all of that in mind, if the Flames decided one way or another to move on from Mark Giordano I would enthusiastically throw my vote for the next Flames Captain behind Milan Lucic! Do you agree with my amazing idea or do you think I’m an idiot per usual? Vote below!!!