Quote:
Originally Posted by Textcritic
While I agree that the return for Iginla would have been higher had he been traded before last season, a couple of things:
· I am still not convinced that Iginla would have conceded to a trade at an earlier point in time. Prior to last season, both he and the Flames management had each other convinced that they could win with the lineup they had. Iginla is as much to blame for the delay in trading him as anyone else involved.
· I don't think Kiprusoff would have agreed to a trade at any point. He is an oddball, and while he was ultra competitive, it always seemed that he had a different set of priorities, and didn't seem to care much about proving anything to anyone by winning a championship. In the end, we have no idea about either player, but I think it is a bit short sighted to pine for what could have been, when there is virtually no evidence to suggest that things would have been any different.
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While true, IMO an important part of the GM's job is talking players into doing what the team needs them to do.
I'm just speculating, but I somehow doubt it would have been such a hard sell for Iggy anyway. I'm not at all convinced that Iggy was that motivated in Calgary the last couple of seasons, as his effort level was IMO all over the place. I'm sure he really wanted to win it here, but Iggy knows his hockey, I'm sure he had a fairly realistic picture of his actual chances, which were pretty close to zero
As to Kipper, if you talked to him earlier, he would have been in a completely different situation. He had many millions of dollars to look forward to and some good years left in him. While I agree that Kipper was/is an oddball, athletes are competitive and want to win championships.
Basicly I see it like this: if you can't talk an athlete into taking a better chance to win a championship, odds are you're not that great at handling people.