Flames' Giordano out for season with torn tendon

Calgary Flames captain Mark Giordano needs surgery to repair a torn biceps tendon and will not play again this season.

"He looked at every avenue to not go through with that procedure and see if he can keep playing and see if there's a time where it settles down over time. But we're not going to risk anything with him. There is no opportunity for him to play. This is the only measure that's left," Flames general manager Brad Treliving said Monday on Sportsnet. "Obviously that's not the news we wanted to hear, but that's what will happen."

Recovery time is expected to be four to five months.

Giordano was injured Feb. 25 during the Flames' 3-1 win against the New Jersey Devils when he was engaged with Devils forward Steve Bernier.

"We knew this was a potential," Treliving said. "You see injuries where there is the potential to have it corrected through surgical procedures, whether you have to do it now or whether that can wait. We discussed all these options for a while. We knew there was going to have to be surgery done, whether it was now or at a future date. That was something we were exploring over the last couple of days."

The Flames tried to acquire a defenseman prior to the NHL Trade Deadline, Treliving said, but were unsuccessful.

"It made us more urgent to try and get [a trade] done," Treliving said. "You don't replace Mark Giordano. You just don't do that today.

"I think the urgency to do something, you have to match that with the calmness of not overreacting and all of a sudden doing something that you are making a big mistake. Because to think that Mark's leaving our lineup and we are going to go out and replace him today is ... that's fools gold. But we pushed very hard up until the buzzer to see if there was a fit to help offset that loss, but you don't offset that loss."

At the time he was injured, Giordano's 48 points were tied for the lead among NHL defensemen and tied for the lead on the Flames. Giordano had 11 goals, a plus-13 rating and averaged 25:10 of ice time per game.

"He was devastated by the news," Treliving said. "… This is not what he wanted but this is what it is, so we will deal with it."