This past week, the Toronto Maple Leafs caught many by surprise when they demoted Nicholas Robertson ahead of the trade deadline. Some had felt as though Robertson would be included in a deadline deal for an upgrade elsewhere on the roster, but in the end, Robertson being sent to the Marlies was nothing more than a paper transaction. Today, the Leafs recalled Robertson from the Marlies ahead of practice. It was mainly a surprise due to the fact the Leafs had just under $350K in cap space.
According to CapFriendly however, the recovery of Mark Giordano from a concussion is taking longer than expected as the Leafs moved him from IR to LTIR to create the cap space necessary for Robertson to be recalled.
Giordano crashed hard into the end boards early in the first period of a game against the Arizona Coyotes two weeks ago. At this point, there is no timeline for his return, but even if there was, the Leafs bringing in Ilya Lyubushkin and Joel Edmundson before the deadline likely means that Giordano is the 7th or 8th defenseman on the depth chart.
The 40-year-old Giordano has produced well below what he did with the Leafs last season, dropping from 24 points in 78 games down to just 1 goal and 6 assists in 38 games this season. As the oldest skater in the league, I don't think anyone can fault Giordano for experiencing such a significant drop off in production, nor can they fault the Leafs to moving moves to shore up the blueline.
