Kraken trade Giordano, Blackwell to Leafs for draft picks

By Geoff Baker / The Seattle Times

Kraken general manager Ron Francis continued unloading players for draft picks Sunday, sending the first captain in team history, Mark Giordano, and forward Colin Blackwell to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Kraken, who are retaining 50% of Giordano’s remaining $6.75 million salary cap hit for this season, received a second-round draft pick this summer, another in 2023 and a third-rounder in 2024 in return for the package.

The trade, first reported by ESPN’s Emily Kaplan, was not unexpected as Giordano had sat out his team’s past two home games so as to not risk injury ahead of any deal. Sunday’s move follows last Wednesday’s trade that sent forward Calle Jarnkrok to the Calgary Flames for a second-round pick this summer, a third-rounder in 2023 and a seventh-rounder in 2024.

“We want to thank Mark for his time with the Seattle Kraken,” Francis said Sunday in a release put out by the team. “As the organization’s first captain, he made an immediate and lasting impact both on and off the ice. He is a consummate professional and we appreciate his effort and leadership to help establish a culture here.”

Francis had made it a priority to obtain draft picks at the trade deadline given the lack of side deals managed at last summer’s expansion draft that ordinarily would have kept his pipeline flowing with future prospects. Thus far, with the deadline expiring at noon Pacific Time on Monday, he’s landed a half-dozen picks — though no first-rounders — in return for three players whose contracts were set to expire at season’s end and who were due to become unrestricted free agents.

It appeared the trade market for defensemen might be even more robust for the Kraken when the Florida Panthers last week sent a first-round pick in 2023, a fourth-rounder in 2022 and unsigned college draft pick Ty Smilanic to Montreal in exchange for veteran blueliner Ben Chiarot. Then, on Saturday, the Boston Bruins sent a first-rounder in 2022, second-rounders in 2023 and 2024 and defensemen Urho Vaakanainen and John Moore to Anaheim for defenseman Hampus Lindholm and AHL blueliner Kodie Curran.

The Ducks retained half of Lindholm’s remaining $2.6 million cap hit. Lindholm then promptly signed an eight-year, $52 million extension with the Bruins on Sunday.

But Lindholm is a decade younger than Giordano and regarded as one of the NHL’s finest left-handed point shots. His willingness to sign an extension likely factored into the price the Bruins paid to get him.

Chiarot, 30, is eight years younger than Giordano and plays the type of physical style well-suited to playoff teams.

Also, Maple Leafs GM Kyle Dubas was reportedly unwilling to sacrifice a first-rounder for what amounts to a short-term rental in Giordano. With the Bruins officially off the board for a defenseman as of Saturday, the number of potential Giordano destinations was dwindling.

Word began circulating Saturday that Dubas might be open to trading a pair of second-round picks, which is where the addition of Blackwell to the deal was likely formulated.

Giordano, 38, was selected by the Kraken in the expansion draft from Calgary, where he had played for 15 seasons, scoring 143 goals and compiling 366 assists. He was also a team leader and captain of the Flames his final eight seasons there.

In 2019, Giordano won the Norris Award as the NHL’s top defenseman after having a career-high 74 points.

Blackwell, 28, acquired from the New York Rangers in the expansion draft, had eight goals and 17 points for the Kraken in 39 games.

Like many Toronto-born players who grow up dreaming of helping the Maple Leafs win their first championship since 1967, Giordano had let the Kraken know his hometown was one of his preferred landing spots. The Leafs haven’t reached the final since that last championship season 55 years ago while Giordano also has yet to make it that far in postseason play.

Giordano played in 55 games with the Kraken and was tied for seventh on the team with 23 points (seven goals, 16 assists).

Giordano said Friday that he liked his time in Seattle

“I’ve been happy to be a part of building something here,” Giordano said. “To be named captain is something I don’t take for granted. And for the organization to put the ‘C’ on my jersey this year means a lot. I look at a ton of different relationships I made this year. Guys I’d never met before.

“So it’s been a pretty cool experience. I know obviously we didn’t get the results we would have wanted. But I do think there are a lot of positives to take away from the way this thing was built and is being built.”