Quote:
Originally Posted by DuckSauce
Some of the things I have always wondered about:
*What was it like when Nieuwendyk rumours started? Did fans want picks/prospects or an established star before getting Iginla?
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In the pre-internet era, it was hard to say what fans wanted. Trade speculation and rumours were confined to the columnists at the Herald and Sun, and fan opinions to the letters section of the newspaper.
But the tenor of fans in the early 90s was that the Flames core couldn’t get it done in the playoffs. Season after season of playoff disappointments had soured a lot of fans.
This was also in the era when small-market Canadian teams were declining to second-tier status due to the lack of a cap and a weak Canadian dollar. So fans were aware that stars were pricing themselves out of markets like Calgary.
There wasn’t any real talk of a rebuild. But Niewendyk was likely going to a contender, so expectations were that the return would be mostly picks and prospects.