Quote:
Originally Posted by stemit14
People like to criticize Feaster and ownership for keeping iginla too long but you have to realize how valuable he was to this organization and this community for so long... It was important that he got to stay for as long as he wanted and that management respected him enough to do that.
You can all compare what buffalo has done with vanek and miller to what the flames could have done with iginla but neither of those players ever meant as much as iggy meant to this team. Not even close. I would go so far as to say that, aside from maybe Crosby and Ovechkin, no single player has been such an important part of a team/city as iginla was to the Calgary flames. It's very easy to say now that the flames should have traded him 4 years ago but that's not what the vast majority of fans wanted back then.
Plus it's very easy for a team like buffalo who has been at the bottom of the league all year and had a clear understanding that neither vanek or miller wanted to re-sign to go ahead and trade those players while they are still in their prime. At that stage of iginla's career, the flames were always in a playoff spot or flirting with one all season right to the end... Always a puck bounce or a decently-reffed game away from securing a playoff spot or even home ice advantage. At that time, the majority of us were calling for the flames to add a centeremen or a rental player to make a push for the playoffs. I'll admit now that the flames should have focused on building up the prospect pool more but I still wouldn't have wanted us to trade iginla any earlier than we did.
I'll gladly take the reduced return that the flames got for iginla knowing he left on good terms and wasn't forced out (though at times it feels like certain fans and media did just that in the end).
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It was ####ty asset management no matter how you sugar coat it. Nobody is greater than the team.