Quote:
Originally Posted by Inglewood Jack
the Flames are emotionally tied to Gio the way they were to Iggy for too long. no matter how bad value his contract turns out, it will never be dealt with from a pure business perspective. every team has at least one of these, so we'll just have to suck it up.
but yes, I'd vote for the Gio/Duchene swap.
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I really hope not. Nothing against Gio, but he is not Iginla and most likely not going be a first ballot hall of famer like Iginla will be. The emotional tie to a player of Iggy's level is at least understandable.
My concern all along with Gio is that people started looking at him at the elite replacement captain that Iginla always was, and he simply might not be that caliber of player. He's probably just a very good player who had 1 - 1.5 years of elite play, and will have stretches of very good play in whatever is left in his career.
Let's face it, we were spoiled to have a modern era legend as our captain for years on end...and yes, we hung on too long with Iggy. But it also seems like people have expected Gio to become the same type of player -- has he ever really been that kind of player? This wasn't a guy that came in and starting playing elite hockey at 22. Gio's has not been an elite player for most of his career.
Obviously I'd love to be wrong but I am concerned the Flames bet too heavily on Gio being that type of guy. My prediction has been that it will only be 2-3 years before Gio is replaced by one of the younger guys as captain and leader of the team anyways.