Quote:
Originally Posted by Tinordi
Iginla's apparent unwillingness to play the coaching system of Sutter along with his aversion to defensive play should make irrelevant any comparison to the contracts and play of Yzerman later in his career.
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Yup.
The problem with Iginla is that he still has managed to hold on to the reputation that he's a complete player. He certainly was in his prime, but he's clearly sacrificed other areas of his game to maintain his scoring pace. He's not really a physical presence anymore. He isn't solid defensively and blows the zone too early. He's become a downright terrible puck possession player who relies too much on the rush to generate offense and is hemmed in his own zone frequently. There's still a lot of things he does well (namely his shot), but if it wasn't for his reputation of being a complete player he'd be the kind of guy we all complain about for putting up an "empty" 30 goals.
The problem with Iginla is that he's hardly a comparison to guys like Sakic and Yzerman who aged wonderfully because he isn't as solid in all facets of the game. There's not much for him to rely on anymore if he stops scoring at the same rate. That's the risk in giving him 4+ years so he can end his career here.