Top 5 Favorite Flames players of all time

[Fighting Banana Slug]

Not necessarily in order:
Iggy
Kipper
Loob
McDonald
MacInnis
Irrational love for: Titov, Plett, Konroyd, Bullard
Edit: And goddammit Nilsson's first year was so glorious. He needs to be mentioned.

[spuzzum]

-Hakan Loooooooobbb!! followed by:
-MacInnis
-Roberts
-Kipper
-Lombardi

[CroFlames]

Originally Posted by Flames Draft Watcher

Well the last thing Iginla did as a Flame was screw over Jay Feaster and the Flames by pretending he was okay being moved to four teams and then pull the rug out and say nah, only PIT. That's the last thing he did as a Flame and I can't help but think of that every time I think of Iginla. I'm annoyed he did that. I'm annoyed Feaster got so little for him. I'm annoyed ownership didn't allow a trade earlier. I'm annoyed that Iginla often had horrible starts to his season.

2004 was a long, long time ago and frankly most of Iginla's tenure here was bitterly dissappointing. He stayed too long and we got crap all for him.

Greatest Flames goal scorer? He was indeed. One of my favourite players? Too much disappointment around his tenure and especially the way he left for him to be anywhere near that list for me.

Fair enough. I'm just surprised people look past so many of his accomplishments (Richard, Art Ross, Lindsay, etc) and remember the negatives, which, IMO, aren't even his fault for the most part.

For instance, he didn't stay too long; the GMs didn't trade him soon enough. The disappointment of losing/subpar seasons doesn't fall to Iggy; it lies with management who built flawed teams around him.

Feaster botched The Trade, and I don't blame Iggy for wanting to play with Sid although it's kinda funny how he shoulda stuck with the initial trade offer. It would have worked out better for him personally. Further to that point, the Boston package wasn't that good either so it's not like it made a huge difference to the Flames overall return. Bartkowski turned out to be a plug.

[Forbsey-123]

Brett Hull
Gary Roberts
Doug Gilmour
Martin St Louis
Grant Fuhr

[Flames Draft Watcher]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

Fair enough. I'm just surprised people look past so many of his accomplishments (Richard, Art Ross, Lindsay, etc) and remember the negatives, which, IMO, aren't even his fault for the most part.

I wouldn't say I'm looking past his accomplishments. But accomplishments alone don't make any player a favourite player of mine. Play style and personality are huge for me. Iginla as a long time Flame I have a lot of mixed feelings about. Adored him early in his career as he played that power forward style and led the league in goals. Liked him a bit less as he tried to play more of a finesse, speedier style and he lost most of the power in his game. Really got frustrated with him one year where he was literally the worst player on the ice for all of October. Got frustrated with him, management and ownership when it was clear we needed to trade him and rebuild and everybody involved refused to recognize it. Then Feaster trades him for less than what Fleury got, less than what Russell got. Just disastrous. Luckily we've done fairly well at the top end of the draft or the Bouwmeester and Iginla trades might have set the rebuild back a lot more.

Originally Posted by CroFlames

For instance, he didn't stay too long; the GMs didn't trade him soon enough. The disappointment of losing/subpar seasons doesn't fall to Iggy; it lies with management who built flawed teams around him.

Management and ownership definitely is to blame for Iginla not being traded soon enough. IMO keeping him here too long tarnished his legacy a bit because the Iginla at the end of his career here was a shell of a his former self but he was still relied on as our top player.

Originally Posted by CroFlames

Feaster botched The Trade, and I don't blame Iggy for wanting to play with Sid although it's kinda funny how he shoulda stuck with the initial trade offer. It would have worked out better for him personally. Further to that point, the Boston package wasn't that good either so it's not like it made a huge difference to the Flames overall return. Bartkowski turned out to be a plug.

I don't blame Iginla for wanting to play with Crosby either. Just frustrating that he misled our management, or lied to them or whatever the heck went on. Why give a 4 team list if it's only 1 team? That is so sleazy. If you only wanna go to PIT then say that all along and keep a consistent story. Just frustrating all around.

In the end I'm more disappointed in ownership and management. For all the intellectual honesty Feaster talked about he really needed to start rebuilding the year he had the "fool me once, fool me twice" quotes and he lacked the intellectual honesty to do so. But the way Iginla's career ended here really tarnished the way I think about him. He was about to be an UFA who could sign with whatever team he wanted. Why not just do one last favour to the Flames and their fans and accept a trade anywhere? In the end Iginla made a selfish choice that looks bad in retrospect and I've judged him on it. I know I'm probably in the minority on this. He had a NMC so he was perfectly within his rights to say only PIT but as a fan of the Flames its well within my rights to think that the 4 team list, no only PIT was kind of a dick move.

Anyways great player and a better human being. I know most people are still big fans of his and I think thats awesome. But I had been waiting for years for that Iginla trade to get us a key component for our rebuild and unless Klimchuk turns into something great we really got SFA for him. As a fan of Fleury, the Fleury trade, and Regehr and knowing how important Regehr was for us I was hoping for a similar trade. Feaster and Iginla's NMC combined to let us down and basically get the franchise next to nothing for its former franchise player. With Kiprusoff not netting us anything either and Bouwmeester being traded for .50 on the dollar Feaster failed to acquire many pieces for our rebuild from our former top players. Luckily he didn't trade away guys like Gaudreau and Brodie. Feaster had the chance to accelerate our rebuild but he failed to do so.

Thank god we've been lucky in the draft getting Monahan, Bennett and Tkachuk cause otherwise this rebuild would be looking pretty terrible.

[devo22]

1. Miikka Kiprusoff




2. Jarome Iginla
3. Kristian Huselius
4. Robyn Regehr
5. Mikael Backlund

Honorable mention to Martin Gelinas, Craig Conroy, Cory Sarich and Mark Giordano.

[flamesfan1297]

Originally Posted by Slava

Could this be anything aside from blatant trolling now? You're putting Jones and Glencross ahead of Iginla and Kipper? I mean I personally have a hard time coming up with which five, but it's got nothing to do with those two. Hard to say whether they should even belong in the top five for their roster of the day, never mind an all time Flames list.

This thread is called "Top 5 favorite Flames players of all time" not "Top 5 players of all time". Theres no reason he can't like Jones and Glencross more than he likes Iggy and Kipper. There are literally no right or wrong answers to this question. Not everyone is going to have the same top 5 or opinions of you.

[VladtheImpaler]

Loob, Tim Hunter, Huselius, Roberts, Warrener in no particular order.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by flamesfan1297

This thread is called "Top 5 favorite Flames players of all time" not "Top 5 players of all time". Theres no reason he can't like Jones and Glencross more than he likes Iggy and Kipper. There are literally no right or wrong answers to this question. Not everyone is going to have the same top 5 or opinions of you.

Both this thread and the other thread are filled to the brim with people questioning, criticising, and debating each other's selections.

I'm pretty sure it's allowed. If someone rolls into the hate thread and throws down Iggy, Kipper, and Lanny, he'll probably get the same questions.

There aren't right or wrong answers, but there are highly agreeable or disagreeable ones.

[flamesfan1297]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

Both this thread and the other thread are filled to the brim with people questioning, criticising, and debating each other's selections.

I'm pretty sure it's allowed. If someone rolls into the hate thread and throws down Iggy, Kipper, and Lanny, he'll probably get the same questions.

There aren't right or wrong answers, but there are highly agreeable or disagreeable ones.

But why accuse him of trolling and basically mock his picks? It's fine to question it, but then do it politely. Ask why they were his favorite and what he seen in them.

[JonDuke]

Iggy
Backlund
Big Ern
Gaudreau
Kipper

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by flamesfan1297

But why accuse him of trolling and basically mock his picks? It's fine to question it, but then do it politely. Ask why they were his favorite and what he seen in them.

If being impolite bothers you, I would suggest you never go near a coach-related or post-loss PGT ever again.

[socalwingfan]

1) Lanny McDonald
2) Kiprusoff
3) Macinnis
4) Iginla
5) Gaudreau/Tkachuk

[btimbit]

Fleury
Kiprusoff
McGrattan
Gelinas
Nieuwendyk

[Mister Yamoto]

1a. Lanny McDonald
1b. Jarome Iginla

That's my top two quite easily. Greatness and class on and off the ice. Lanny gets it by virtue of longevity and moustache.

3. Joel Otto

The only player in the world who could neutralize Mark Messier. Favourite player for me as a kid.

4. Johnny Gaudreau

Makes something happen every shift. So glad the Flames have him and his book hasn't been written yet. It's gonna be exciting.

4. Mikka Kiprusoff

04 cup run was the funnest hockey ever. Such an unlikely run, the Red Mile, The Eliminator, June hockey in Calgary.

5. Al MacInnis

That shot. The Flames traded their powerplay to the Blues in 1994 and it still hasn't bounced back.

Irrational love for Nazarov, Simpson, Braithwaite, Mcarthy, Risebrough. Actually I kind of have an irrational affinity for the whole "Young Guns" era.

Fighting Banana Slug mentioning Mike Bullard got me thinking. He is the only Flames center to have a 100 point season. Also Cliff Fletcher told me that Mike Bullard was the best trade he ever made.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by flamesfan1297

But why accuse him of trolling and basically mock his picks? It's fine to question it, but then do it politely. Ask why they were his favorite and what he seen in them.

Well I wasn't trying to be impolite and certainly didn't mean that. Not that it matters, but him and I chatted over PMs today about this and there was nothing hostile or anything at all.

I guess I look at this if I was sitting around with my buddies having this conversation. I would say the same thing....basically are you just going for a reaction right now? I don't mean anything hostile or impolite at all by that.

[drewtastic]

No particular order...(except first listed is first in my program, first in my heart...)

Joel Otto
Carey Wilson
Craig Conroy
German Titov
John Tonelli

[Flacker]

Hakan Loob
Gary Roberts
Kent Nilsson
Lanny McDonald
Mikka Kiprusoff

[dakeyras]

Despite being a fan since the mid-80's, I must have short-term memory or something. My favorites are all from recent times.
Regehr
Warrener
Kipper
Big Ern
Iggy

[GioforPM]

List of guys I liked for reasons I can't explain.

Titov
Hrdina
Nilson