How the Calgary Flames replaced Mark Giordano

At the 2021 expansion draft, the Calgary Flames lost their best defender to the Seattle Kraken. Mark Giordano, the club’s captain and a former Norris Trophy winner, was left exposed and was claimed by the National Hockey League’s 32nd franchise.

At the time, it was mentioned that the Flames couldn’t just “replace” Giordano. No one player ended up taking his role, but through 47 games it appears that the club has managed to replace him in the aggregate.

In the last 30 games of 2020-21, Darryl Sutter coached the Flames. In the back half of that season, the club used basically seven blueliners in six spots:

Mark Giordano & Rasmus Andersson as top pairing

Noah Hanifin & Chris Tanev as second pairing

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