Maple Leafs Trade 3 Picks For Mark Giordano and Colin Blackwell

In the early afternoon on Sunday, it was clear the Toronto Maple Leafs were planning something. With news that Petr Mrazek was being placed on waivers, and then Kyle Clifford followed, the transactions that took place throughout the day mean the Leafs were clearing money to make a big move and they did just that, trading for defenseman Mark Giordano from the Seattle Kraken.

The details of the trade are that Toronto is sending two 2nd round picks and a 3rd round pick to the Seattle Kraken in exchange for Mark Giordano and Colin Blackwell.

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As per @ryanlesliemedia, Mark Giordano has reportedly been traded to the @MapleLeafs. 👀 #NHLTradeDeadline pic.twitter.com/bxqoKa1vAJ

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) March 20, 2022

Ryan Leslie of Sportsnet and TSN’s Darren Dreger of TSN tweets that multiple draft picks will be involved but the details of the trade aren’t known as of yet. It took almost two hours for the trade to be confirmed thanks to complications with the rules about the salary cap and waivers, but the deal was finally completed.

It’s not clear yet how much salary the Kraken are retaining in the trade but it is believed to be 50%.

Maple Leafs Were Up to Something

About an hour before the trade, The Athletic’s James Mirtle tweeted, “Kyle Clifford is also on waivers. If the Leafs demote Mrazek, Clifford, [Timothy] Liljegren – in addition to [Nick] Robertson going down already – plus trade [Travis] Dermott, they have more than $4M+ in possible additional space. Sources whispering Leafs trying to pull off something big.” The belief was that it was either a goaltender or the defenseman as the Maple Leafs had been tied in rumors to Giordano for over a week.

The expectation is that he’ll line up alongside T.J. Brodie and play on the Leafs’ second pair.

It was reported Giordano was keen on playing in Toronto and coming home. The early talk was that Calgary was an option early in the season but with the moves they made, Toronto quickly became the landing spot but it was about the money and how GM Kyle Dubas might move things around to make it work. Salary retention was going to be part of the equation.

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