Quote:
Originally Posted by Oling_Roachinen
Why would he avoid that? We're talking about a 38 year old. If that means that the Flames keep all of Hanifin, Valimaki, Kylington, Andersson, other signings or surprises (Brodie/Hamonic/UFA), Treliving will probably be begging for them to take Gio.
I love Gio, but 38 year olds don't have the best track record in the NHL. Iginla was still a 30 goal scorer at 37 but done by 39.
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35 year olds don't have the best track record in the NHL either. Yet Giordano is pacing for the Norris Trophy at 35. Guys to win the Norris at 35 in the last like, four decades is tiny:
Al MacInnis - played til 39, 2nd in Norris voting at 39
Lidstrom - played til 42, went on to win three more Norris trophies
That's it. That's the list. And Giordano has a chance to join that list. So yeah, he's already an exception to the rules going forward.
And even for guys with second place finishes at Gio's current age you have a guy like Zdeno Chara, who was very much a top pairing defenseman at 38, was protected in an expansion draft, and is actually still a 20 minute a game Dman at 41
Gio's also the captain of our team, and a far better two way player than Iginla ever was. There are off-ice reasons the team would not want to lose him, every time a prospect is brought in they are told to do nothing but watch Mark Giordano off the ice. His work ethic is unrivalled and the fact that it carries on-ice success with it reflects well upon emulating him.
Your rush to throw away the single most important aspect of this team - our current top pair - astounds me. This team is not even in a playoff spot without Giordano and Brodie and at this point none of Valimaki, Kylington, or Andersson have shown that even they are top 4 defensemen. I'm not even sure Andersson will be with the organization by the time expansion rolls around, with his brutal underlying numbers he's trending the Markus Granlund way of a AAAA player with some special teams utility. Even Hanifin is also no lock to be better than Giordano three years from now.