[DeluxeMoustache]

The dilemma I have is this.

Iggy didn't make Stempniak center the pick for a point blank chance that was a killer last game. Didn't make Butler cough it up behind the net vs Nashville. Didn't make Bouwmeester completely blind to Fisher cruising through the crease and waiting for the tap

The guy is the face of the franchise, best player, still draws the toughest competition, and again doesn't even have a center. He still wins board battles, plowed through guys last game. He does backcheck, and has broken up enough plays. He fights to spark the team...And no response.

Maybe he can not singlehandedly will them to wins. But he is not losing the games. He is still dangerous and contributing, not Iggy circa 2001-2009, but still the most dangerous player on the team. He is surrounded by losers.

Iginla was in the conversation about who has scored the most goals since the last lockout. And he plays for a team who gives the next highest dollars to a cream puff who has been on the ice for more goals against than any other player in the entire NHL the past 4 years.

It is hard to score the goals you need to win in this league. It is easy to have lapses that result in GA.

I don't want to see him traded because I know he is not the problem. He is still often the most dangerous guy on the ice and draws the toughest assignments. Which, even if he is producing a touch behind (short season, slow start, and he is sometimes streaky), should make it easier for the other lines. No C with a 2 way game and soft and/or stupid D are the problem.

We all know the C defensive game is way more important than the W, but you still hear comparisons to the 2 way game of Captains like Toews.

It is rare and a great story when a legend spends a career with a team. Sakic and Yzerman did it, but didn't play without supporting casts. Too bad that Calgary has made so many lousy decisions over the years that it and Iginla are being railroaded in to an unglamorous one.

The guy is not the problem on the ice, is a sure hall of famer, and has game left. But surrounded by a suboptimal lineup, and guys who can't elevate their game. And this puts him and the team in a no win situation. The fact that the rest of the situation is so dire, that it seems impossible to give him what he deserves.

I would love to see him continue here and would also love to see the team give him a good competitive supporting cast, where he can play any role appropriate. And the tough decision is not Iginla and the actual value he returns, but the symbolic throwing in of the towel. It is related to the blueprint and identity. It is ideally exchanging whatever wingers anybody will take and anybody (but Brodie and maybe Gio) on D out and getting depth with two way C's, plus D men that can simultaneously monitor the puck plus the positioning of the other team (too tall an order apparently). Nobody is giving them away and nobody is going to do the Flames favours.

Hyperbole. If Iggy is leaving and it is about him winning, and he is leaving for good, he should consider the probability of winning this year and the prospective return vs sticking with his NTC. Why deplete his destination of assets if that is where his new loyalty is to lie?

Anyways this Mats Sundin treatment of Iggy is basically the acceptance of being losers, for what it is worth. Not specifying by whom.

Given that I would love to see him traded to Pitt and knock down 30. That would be sweet.