‘It’s definitely a weird summer’
Giordano hasn’t seen an off-season like this as expansion draft looms
Mark Giordano is in Las Vegas for obviously different reasons than watching Wednesday’s National Hockey League expansion draft.
The Calgary Flames captain is intrigued about the Vegas Golden Knights and how the team’s general manager George McPhee will build his team.
But there’s also the human side of things, knowing that the Flames — and the other 30 teams in the league — will be losing a teammate.
“There’s two levels to it,” Giordano said prior to arriving in Las Vegas for the NHL’s Humanitarian Awards on Tuesday, which featured his nomination for the Mark Messier NHL Leadership Award — an honour that went to Columbus Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno. “The guys that are protected, yeah, you’re interested and you want to watch it. But you feel for the guys, too. There will be guys who are obviously getting moved that probably don’t want to be moved. There’s going to be trades based on this thing, that’s some of the talk that there will be deals leading up to and after it ... any time there’s uncertainty as a player, you feel for guys in those positions because you know how it is and you know it can be you any day.”
There’s uncertainty, even as a protected player like Giordano.
The Flames also protected Sean Monahan, Mikael Backlund, Sam Bennett, Curtis Lazar, Johnny Gaudreau, Micheal Ferland, Michael Frolik, Dougie Hamilton, TJ Brodie and the newly acquired netminder Mike Smith.
Among the list of notable unprotected players are forwards Troy Brouwer and Matt Stajan, who both come with hefty contracts. Brouwer’s cap hit is US$4.5-million for three more seasons while Stajan has one more season left on his deal ($3.125-million). Winger Lance Bouma could also be selected by Las Vegas as he carries a $2.2-million cap hit for one more season. Ditto for Freddie Hamilton’s and defender Matt Bartkowski’s $612,500 salaries, which continue through 2017-18. Alex Chiasson (RFA), Kris Versteeg (UFA), Michael Stone (UFA), Deryk Engelland (UFA), Dennis Wideman (UFA), and Brian Elliott (UFA) were also exposed.
There’s also a crop of their AHLers that are exposed including Emile Poirier, Hunter Shinkaruk, Linden Vey, Ryan Culkin, Michael Kostka, Brett Kulak, Tyler Wotherspoon and Tom McCollum.
Meanwhile, Smith was picked up by Flames general manager Brad Treliving on Saturday in a trade with the Arizona Coyotes who needed a netminder to protect (Chad Johnson) and also received unsigned prospect Brandon Hickey and a third-round pick (which turns into a second if the Flames make the playoffs).
Calgary, in return, got its No. 1 netminder.
That was one of the bigger deals leading up to Wednesday’s NHL expansion draft.
The Flames also need to solve their backup netminder situation and there are a few options.
They could attempt to re-sign Johnson on July 1 — if he hasn’t already inked a deal with the Coyotes, whom acquired his rights in the Smith trade and are protecting him in the NHL Expansion Draft — or find a suitable backup like Mike Condon, Jonathan Bernier or Anders Nilsson. They could also wait and see if Jon Gillies or David Rittich wins the job out of training camp.
But there’s surely more uncertainty to come.
“It’s definitely a weird summer,” Giordano said. “I think there’s a lot of speculation going on both by the media and probably by a lot of us players, too. I’ve thought about different scenarios. You know there’s going to be a guy selected by your team. “It’s definitely weird.” The Vegas Golden Knights will select one player from each team to make up a roster of 14 forwards, nine defencemen, and three goaltenders and they must select a minimum of 20 players who are under contract for the 2017-18 season.
McPhee’s final selections will be revealed during the 2017 NHL Awards on Wednesday (8 p.m. ET). And, overall, the addition of the Golden Knights is positive according to Giordano.
“There’s some mixed emotions, for sure,” Giordano said. “But I think bringing in a new team is great for the league. I think Las Vegas will be great for the league.”
I think there’s a lot of speculation going on both by the media and probably by a lot of us players, too. I’ve thought about different scenarios.