The Toronto Maple Leafs made a big splash ahead of the NHL trade deadline, facilitating a move to acquire Mark Giordano from the Seattle Kraken. The veteran defenseman will join the Maple Leafs in hopes of winning his first-ever Stanley Cup Finals. He failed to do so across his first 16 seasons in the league. After learning of the trade back to his hometown team, Giordano made a statement that'll have Maple Leafs fans fired up.

Via David Alter, Giordano said, “To come to my hometown is a nice bonus, but to be able to come to a team that has a real good shot to create some damage in the playoffs is something I'm really excited about.”

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Of course, Giordano joined the Seattle Kraken as part of the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft. It ended his 15-year tenure with the Calgary Flames. In his first year with the Kraken, he was named team captain and served a valuable leadership role to the upstart franchise. Across 55 games, Giordano provided 23 points for Seattle, including 6 goals and 17 assists.

Now, he'll get the chance to contribute to far more goals on the high-scoring Maple Leafs, playing alongside some stars including Auston Matthews, John Tavares, and Mitch Marner.

Giordano has only been to playoffs four times in his NHL career, most recently in 2019-20 with the Flames. He'll hope for a longer stay in the postseason this time around with Toronto, having been knocked out in the first round in each of his previous visits to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.