TBT CPHL: Mark Giordano

[JiriHrdina]

This week we look at the career path of Mark Giordano in the CPHL.


Undrafted, signed into the CPHL by the Detroit Red Wings Feb 14, 2006 (3 years @ 500K)

Trade #1 – May 29, 2007
Team: Detroit Red Wings
- Malone, Ryan (LW) NHL
- Giordano, Mark (D) NHL

Team: Florida Panthers
- Poti, Tom (D) NHL

At this time, Gio had just started to show his game at the NHL level – so his inclusion in this deal is not a small piece. Poti was a decent blueliner at this point, and Gio was a nice prospect for the Panthers to add to fill the value gap.

Trade #2 – Aug 28, 2008

Team: Los Angeles Kings
- Craig, Ryan (RW) NHL
- 2010 4th Round Draft Choice (la)

Team: Florida Panthers
- Giordano, Mark (D) NHL
- 2009 5th Round Draft Choice (fla)

On the surface this is a huge steal for the Kings, but you have to look back at where each player was at the time. Gio was coming off his year of exile in Russia, and it was not certain he could be a good NHLer. Craig, on the other hand, was a reasonably productive forward with size for the Lightning. However, he never showed that type of performance again – in part because he was simply too slow to keep up with the faster pace of the NHL.

Trade #3 – Oct 23, 2008

Team: Los Angeles Kings
- Giordano, Mark (D) NHL
- Kontiola, Petri (C) AHL

Team: Columbus Blue Jackets
- Little, Bryan (C) ECHL

A reasonably even deal as at the time Little was a highly touted prospect – one that would turn out. In fact, I would say that when this deal was made it probably looked like a steal for the Kings.

Trade #4 – June 4, 2009
Team: Montreal Canadiens
- Schultz, Jeff (D) NHL
- 2009 2nd Round Draft Choice (tb)

Team: Los Angeles Kings
- Giordano, Mark (D) NHL
- 2009 1st Round Draft Choice ()

Another deal that shows how the game evolved during the last 5 years. By this point, Gio had re-established himself as an NHLer, but still wasn’t showing the type of upside that would eventually turn him into the blueliner he is today. Schultz on the other hand was a big part of the Caps D – playing top 4 minutes as a steady stay-at-home guy. Again speed was the killer for Schultz going forward – as the game sped up – he couldn’t keep up. Montreal kills this deal by turning a diminishing assets into two better long-term pieces.

Trade #5: Jan 17, 2010
Team: Montreal Canadiens
- Giordano, Mark (D) NHL
- Blum, John (D) ECHL
- D Amigo, Jerry (C) ECHL
- 2010 2nd Round Draft Choice (nj)

Team: Anaheim Mighty Ducks
- Berglund, Patrik (C) NHL
At this point, Gio is starting to show what he can do – he’s in the midst of a season which would see him score 11 goals and 30 points for the Flames. Flame-lover Ravi make a play to get him by dangling Patrik Berglund. Now at this point we know what Berglund is – which is an adequate 3rd line centre who never made good on his size and offensive abilities. But when this deal was made – he was a valuable trade chip – in the middle of his best NHL season (22 goals, 52 point). He would regress in the following season and now has just 4 points in 21 games in the current NHL campaign.

Trade #6: May 12, 2014
Team: Toronto Maple Leafs
- 2014 1st Round Draft Choice (tor)

Team: Anaheim Mighty Ducks
- Gordon, Boyd (C) NHL
- Giordano, Mark (D) NHL

No surprise that Ravi hangs on to Gio for a number of years. But he eventually does give him up. This is a case of the Ducks GM trying to sell high – Gio was coming off his best season by far, but it was unknown if he could sustain it. We now know there appears to have been yet another progression step for the Flames’ captain to take – and had Ravi hung on – he could have probably received even more back today. Of course the guy willing to pay the most for Gio – is probably Ravi himself. Cap is worth noting here – as Gio was a pending UFA due $8.5M. With a talent laden roster, Ravi had tough choices to make and with that context – moving MG makes sense. I can’t really tell who Ravi drafted with the pick – or if he moved it – perhaps he can recall.


So there you have it folks. Suggestions for next week?

[GreenLantern]

Love these.

[Hanna Sniper]

I would imagine Rick Nash or Joe Thornton would have a history... I also would guess someone like Hal Gill would tell quite a tail but I would think that lack of star power to his name wouldn't make the effort worth it

Edited to add Iginla's name to the list

[devo22]

Originally Posted by JiriHrdina

I can’t really tell who Ravi drafted with the pick – or if he moved it – perhaps he can recall.

he also had the Panthers pick and took Sam Bennett and Aaron Ekblad at 2 and 3. So technically he chose Ekblad with my pick.

this one is a trade that I would do again in a heartbeat. It was tough giving up such a high pick but I figured it would take a few years until that prospect would be as good in the sim as Gio already was at that point (and obviously there's no guarantee that he'll ever reach that level). I'm not taking too much credit for the deal though because Ravi approached me with the idea of Gio+ for the pick and there was only a little bit of tinkering to do in order to finish the deal. Just lucky that Ravi needed to shred cap and was willing to flip a top defenseman like Gio to do it. Those were 8.5m well spent and I'm sure he'll get even better in terms of ratings next season.

Absolutely love these, Grant. Didn't realize that Gio was traded that often, I just assumed that Ravi got a hold of him early and never let him go until last summer

[Da_Chief]

Most of these transactions are no longer viewable on the site. Do you have emails for all these trades? Would it possible to make all transactions for each player viewable moving forward?

[KevanGuy]

Yes we have all the trade emails. Not likely to be able to track the history more than it is now, it'd have to be built into the website.

[Hanna Sniper]

Which ones are not on the site, I don't see any dates missing?

When I did my current teams history at the beginning of the season it was a nightmare... thank good I don't make a huge amount of trades

[I wanna be like Miikka]

Yeah I remember when Gio was in Russia I got offered him for super cheap since the GM knew I loved Flames and thought it was insulting so I rejected it. Then later ended up paying up to get him.

This past summer I was a tough position. The CPHL only allows so many 8-10 million dollar roster players and I already have Price, DD, Toews who were the core that I chose to build around. I think I took Ekblad with the pick and fortunately can afford to wait for him to develop. You need stars on ELC deals to win in this league and hopefully he will end up being one. Definitely a trade that worked out for both teams. Gio continues to impress and improve and looks like he will have even better ratings for the duration of the contract!

[JiriHrdina]

Originally Posted by Da_Chief

Most of these transactions are no longer viewable on the site. Do you have emails for all these trades? Would it possible to make all transactions for each player viewable moving forward?

Yeah I'm not sure why the site dumps old ones - so I use the yahoo email and just search for the players' name to get all the trades.
I have no idea how we would incorporate that into the site.

[JiriHrdina]

Originally Posted by Hanna Sniper

Which ones are not on the site, I don't see any dates missing?

When I did my current teams history at the beginning of the season it was a nightmare... thank good I don't make a huge amount of trades

I think he's referring to the fact that you can click on a player and see all trades involving them. In theory anyways - but it doesn't show all of them - it only goes back a certain number of years for some reason.

[JiriHrdina]

I'm tempted to trace the history of Curtis Glencross if only because at one point he was traded from one team to another as a result of a lost pool game.

[Hanna Sniper]

Originally Posted by JiriHrdina

I think he's referring to the fact that you can click on a player and see all trades involving them. In theory anyways - but it doesn't show all of them - it only goes back a certain number of years for some reason.

I forgot about that page, it always mixed up the order of the trades so I never used it. I thought he was talking about the league transaction page. Makes sense now

[Da_Chief]

Shea Weber would be interesting too.

[JiriHrdina]

Originally Posted by Da_Chief

Shea Weber would be interesting too.

Ugh. Too painful for me to re-visit.

[Knut]

I second Joe Thornton. I think he has moved around alot and it would be interesting to see how his value went up and down over the years.

[MJK]

Trade #1 – May 29, 2007
Team: Detroit Red Wings
- Malone, Ryan (LW) NHL
- Giordano, Mark (D) NHL

Team: Florida Panthers
- Poti, Tom (D) NHL


I'll take credit for this trade, that was me! Good trade MJK!

Trade #2 – Aug 28, 2008

Team: Los Angeles Kings
- Craig, Ryan (RW) NHL
- 2010 4th Round Draft Choice (la)

Team: Florida Panthers
- Giordano, Mark (D) NHL
- 2009 5th Round Draft Choice (fla)

This was not me...I was fired by that time...doh!

[droopydrew19]

Originally Posted by JiriHrdina

I'm tempted to trace the history of Curtis Glencross if only because at one point he was traded from one team to another as a result of a lost pool game.

Did any of us ever think he would amount to anything???

[simmer2]

I totally forgot I traded for Mark Giordano back in the Habs days. That first trade was good, I remembered really wanting Gio and got a solid 1st rndr as well.

The return in year ducks deal was awful looking back though. I had a huge thing for Berglund and Ravi would never trade him so I had to overpay to get him. I flipped Berglund but on paper that was a baaaddd trade.