Quote:
Originally Posted by Itse
...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.
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Of course, we are all speculating on this point, but during his entire tenure with the Flames up until last year, he gave NO INDICATION—
NONE—that he had any interest in pursuing a championship elsewhere. And this was amid regular discussion and postulations in the media that the Flames would need to trade him in the short term.
Having said that, I do take some issue with your characterisation of Iginla as a particularly insightful and astute observer and student of the game. Quite frankly, I don't see it. There were many, MANY times in interviews and public forums that he would go on record about a particular game, or about how the Flames were playing that left me unimpressed by him as one who thinks the game at a higher-than-average level. This is not to disparage Iginla. He is an amazing player, and a smart guy, but like most star players, most of what he does is instinctive to the point that I do not believe he even needs to consider the "how" of what he does—or what his teams do—to play well. Like most star players, he is probably too close to the game to be ale to effectively evaluate the mechanics of what makes a successful team from an overview. Like most players, I tend to take with a grain of salt ANY high-level NHL player's beliefs about how to build a great team. There is a good reason why the best thinkers in the game happen to more commonly be those players who weren't actually very good at playing. Holland, Poille, Chiarelli, Babcock and Tippett all played the game at various levels, but none of them was ever close to the level of an NHL star.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Itse
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.
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Am I to take this to mean that you have talked to Kiprusoff in the past, and he has confirmed as much?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Itse
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.
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Am I to take this to mean that unless a GM is able to convince his players to accept a trade, then he is "not that great at handling people"?