Quote:
Originally Posted by Vulcan
IIRC Francis wrote a column stating that Iginla wasn't going to sign with Calgary so Feaster was forced to trade him. I like the background Calgary4Life gives though that he didn't want to stick around for a rebuild, which is fair.
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Let's say you're the face of the franchise of the team. The GM says, "Hey, it's not you that's the problem..". Then the next season comes along and everything falls apart. The GM comes to you and says, "we're gonna do a rebuild for this team and we have some options: 1) We likely want to trade you to get some value for the rebuild and so that the team can tank as deep as possible or 2) we can still keep you around, but we won't be will building another team around you". Once you're told that you're no longer valuable to the team, I'm not sure if you'd want to stay. Would you want to stay with a company if you're being told to GTFO, even in a nice way?
It's likely that the ownership gave Iggy the options due to total respect so that it gave him a chance at the Cup - it's what Sakic did last year when he traded Iggy to LA. But when the team fails you and you're shown the door, man, it's a hard pill to swallow. What Sakic did and what the Flame did are actually two different scenarios. Iggy asked Sakic, but the Flames asked Iggy.