For anyone paying casual attention to the Calgary Flames this season, here is all you need to know about the players who have made a difference in winning and losing.
The Flames have surprising organizational depth up front. Whenever they've lost a forward to injury, they've been able to promote someone from the minors and hardly miss a beat.
They are strong in goal, too; when they needed to dip into the system for help earlier this year, Joni Ortio came up from Adirondack of the AHL and filled in competently. Even their depth defenceman are interchangeable: With the injury to Ladislav Smid, they're getting decent work from Deryk Engelland and Raphael Diaz in secondary roles.
But their entire playing strategy this season – pushing the pace and creating scoring chances by activating their defencemen – relies heavily on two defence pairs: Mark Giordano with T.J. Brodie, and Kris Russell with Dennis Wideman.
They are virtually irreplaceable – far and away the team leaders in ice time.
Giordano is a Norris Trophy candidate and even in the casual conversation for the Hart Trophy, an award that annually goes to the player "adjudged most valuable to his team."
Giordano's value – in the dressing room as a leader, on the ice as a playmaker – is incalculable. He was the top scorer among NHL defencemen before he got hit by the New Jersey Devils' Steve Bernier and left Wednesday's 3-1 win with an undisclosed upper-body injury.
As of midday Friday, the Flames medical staff was still running tests on Giordano to determine the full extent of his injury. He was ruled out of action for Friday's game against the New York Islanders, and the team was sending signals that Giordano is dealing with a significant injury. For a team unexpectedly in the playoff race, about to play the third game of a season-high seven-game road trip, it was a devastating blow – and will put even greater pressure on Brodie, Wideman and Russell in the days and weeks to come.
Last Sunday, just before the Flames hit the road, I ran my theory about Calgary's four indispensable defenceman past Giordano, in the context of writing a profile on Russell. Of the four, Russell flies under the radar more than the others because his forte is blocking shots – not producing points.
"You look at the league and you look at the top two lines on each team, it's 1A and 1B usually," replied Giordano. "His ability to eat up minutes – Russ and Wides have done that all year for us, able to play against top lines in all situations. I don't know what more you can ask of guys. Russ's ability to defend and make plays on offence is really underrated, it just really is. For us to get him for what we did, at the time, that's one of the best deals in this organization in a long time. He's solidified himself as a top-four guy in the league."
So now it's up to general manager Brad Treliving to find someone else to play a top-four role without sacrificing the organization's long-term goals. Treliving joined the Flames last year from the Arizona Coyotes, and so he knows that organization inside and out. The Coyotes are reportedly making two quality defencemen available in advance of Monday's NHL trade deadline: Zbynek Michalek, currently sidelined with a concussion, and Keith Yandle, an offensive wizard.
Yandle possesses many of Giordano's qualities; the problem is his price is likely far greater than what the Flames want to pay right now. Michalek would be an easier target. And it may well be that if the Flames succeed in flipping forward Curtis Glencross for draft choices, they could turn around and use those assets for help on the blue line.
Like the Chicago Blackhawks, who are scouring the trade market for a forward to fill in for the injured Patrick Kane, Calgary is looking for Giordano's placeholder. Nobody coming in can actually replace Giordano, but some combination of players will have to eat up the 25 minutes and 10 seconds of playing time he averages every night.
Losing Giordano is this team's worst-case scenario. The only thing left to determine now is how long he's out and how aggressively they'll venture into the trade market to add any possible reinforcements.