Giordano’s loss hits teammates hard

There were a lot of ways that Mark Giordano made Brad Treliving's job easier.

One of them was the conversations the Calgary Flames GM had with younger players who were trying to break in at the NHL level.

As he explained Wednesday night after Giordano was selected by the Seattle Kraken in the NHL Expansion Draft, Treliving would often tell his up-and-comers to just watch how Giordano carried himself and try their best to emulate that.

“If you want to follow somebody and how they work, how they prepare, how they commit, how they live, follow that,” Treliving explained. “If you come pretty close, you'll be alright.”

Sean Monahan is one of the players who did just that. He predated Treliving's arrival in Calgary by a year, but from the very start, Monahan modelled his own behaviour on Giordano, who would eventually become one of his best friends off the ice.

“Honestly, when I came to Calgary, I really didn't know anybody,” Monahan said. “I remember when we were in training camp and we announced the G was going to be captain of the team, it was an obvious choice from Day 1.

“He held himself to a very high standard when he wore that ‘C'. (The years) kind of flew by, but yeah, he's 10 years older than me but he's one of my best friends. I love his family, his kids are awesome, he's going to be a friend for life.”

For most of the Flames, the reality that Giordano won't be around at training camp this fall hadn't set in on Thursday afternoon. For every single player on the roster, Giordano has been a fixture at training camp since they first joined the organization.

There's a lot of players over the years who have taken Treliving's advice and tried to do their best to “do as Giordano does” as they tried to establish themselves as pros.

It wasn't just young players, either.

Milan Lucic had already had a long NHL career by the time he arrived in Calgary in 2019. He still looked to Giordano as he tried to find his place in the team.

“Personally, I just wanted to fit into the group and I've kind of had the same upbringing and broke in at the same time as Gio, I think that's why we got along so well,” Lucic said. “We kind of had the same ideas about what we brought to a team, but he sets the tone right off the get-go because of how he takes care of himself and how he gets himself prepared to be his best going into the season.

“That's something to look up to and it motivates your teammates, young and old. That's a big thing that's going to be missed.”

Lucic compared a hockey team to elementary school, where you see the same people every single day. When one of your classmates moves, you still stay in touch with them. You just don't see them every day, and if you're close with them, you miss them.

Monahan said he'll be having dinner with Giordano on Friday. They work out together and when Monahan calls him one of his “best friends”, he means it.

Giordano left an impact in Calgary. It was even more profound in the dressing room.

“Obviously I've been thinking about it a lot and we train together every day so I see him every day, it's tough,” Monahan said. “I've been playing with him for eight years, so we basically spent 300 days, if not more, together for the last six years. It's going to be different. He's a great teammate. He's one of my best friends. Anytime a guy gets picked or moved or moves on with his career, it's tough, but especially when you have a really, really close relationship.

“He pushes guys without talking and I think that just the character that he has. He's one of those guys. It doesn't matter what age you are, you can look up to him.”