Former Kraken Captain Faces Uncertain Future With Maple Leafs

The first - and so far, only - captain in Seattle Kraken history may not have a hockey home for the 2024-25 season.

Plucked from Calgary in the 2021 expansion draft, defenseman Mark Giordano played his 1,000th NHL game in a Kraken sweater during the team's inaugural season.

That achievement was honored in a pregame ceremony at Climate Pledge Arena on March 16, 2022. Four days later, the captain was traded along with Colin Blackwell to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

In return, Seattle received three draft picks, the last of which will be used in the 3rd round of the 2024 NHL Draft in 12 days.

As THN columnist Carol Schram points out , Giordano's two year deal with the Maple Leafs - signed at a significant hometown discount - is about to expire.

"The 2019 Norris Trophy winner saw his ice time drop by more than two minutes a game in 2023-24 as injuries limited him to just 48 regular-season games, and he didn't see the ice in the playoffs.

"For an undrafted player, Giordano's 1,148 games over 18 NHL seasons are a tremendous accomplishment. But with his 41st birthday approaching in October, he may not find another place to play this summer."

Holloway A Constant At Kraken Milestones

Kraken owner Samantha Holloway was on-ice the night of the Giordano ceremony, just as she was at last month's announcement of Dan Bylsma as new coach, and most big Kraken events in-between.

From a recent Bloomberg profile : "When Holloway talks about starting the Kraken, now in their third season, there are echoes of her experience as a tech founder. She described the need to 'be able to change and iterate' and try innovative ways of operating.

"For example, the team in April announced it would move to a hybrid broadcast-streaming approach to televising its games next season as part of a multiyear partnership with Tegna TV stations and Amazon Prime. The Kraken is the first NHL team to take that approach with the streaming service.

“We have to take risks and we have to move quickly and we have to figure it out,” Holloway said. “It’s very much like a startup.”