Quote:
Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
His whole career? His first four seasons with the Nordiques they were one of the worst teams in the NHL, finishing last in the league three times. His last four in Colorado weren't exactly stacked either. So for eight seasons of his 20 year career, he was the best player on lousy teams.
Iginla will no doubt go down as a great player on not-so-great teams. But there's a lot of company in that group. Marcel Dionne. Bernie Federko. Dale Hawerchuk. Denis Savard. Mats Sundin.
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Aside from maybe Dionne, the difference to me is this - none of those players were ever considered one of the best two or three players in the entire league for a time, if not the best. While Sakic had a more storied career than Iggy, at his physical peak there was not another player in the entire league I would've taken over Iggy. In 2004, Iggy was the best player in the entire NHL and could dominate games more than any other player aside from Forsberg who I'd also put in the same camp.
While Iggy turned into more of a pure scorer after the lockout, for a time he was a supremely talented and physical power forward. I would not discount the 'best player in the world' title when assessing Iggy's career. He was that, if only for a short time.