Was this always the plan?
The Calgary Flames lost Mark Giordano, their Norris-winning defenceman and captain, to the Seattle Kraken in July’s expansion draft.
Giordano’s departure created a massive hole on the Flames’ blue line. The 37-year-old veteran logged huge minutes right up until the end of his tenure in Calgary and continued playing excellent hockey, providing 12.9 goals above replacement and $11.1 million of value (according to Evolving-Hockey) during the 2020–21 season.
The Flames had to lose somebody to Seattle. Noah Hanifin and Rasmus Andersson project as top-four defencemen for the foreseeable future while Chris Tanev was arguably the NHL’s best pure shutdown defender in 2020–21.