Iginla wins the fight, of course, because he almost always did. He didn’t fight often, maybe a handful of times a year, because he didn’t have to. But if it needed to be done, he was there. That was what made Iginla such a special player — he could do just about anything his team needed him to do. A goal? Of course. A dominating shift? Yes. Win the crucial battles in his own zone? Often. A crushing open-ice hit to flip the momentum? More than a few. And yes, if somebody needed to step up and trade punches, putting themselves at risk just to make it clear that this team wasn’t backing down from anyone, Iginla was willing and able to do that, too.
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I don’t think the old-school power forward role exists anymore. It probably never will again. And that means that hockey fans will quite literally never see another player quite like Jarome Iginla.
They also touch on the 2002 Hart snub, and the rarity of having a black superstar in the NHL.
Nice to see our boy get his due after the top-100 snub by the NHL. (I will die on this hill)
Iggy was my hero and to this day is my favorite player of all time. So many stories about the man being even better than the player, and what a player he was.
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Nice to see our boy get his due after the top-100 snub by the NHL. (I will die on this hill)
Iggy was my hero and to this day is my favorite player of all time. So many stories about the man being even better than the player, and what a player he was.
and well you should- that was a disgrace
just curious what are the parameters of the modern era?
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His omission on that original list was a problem. Argument can be made he was the best player in the league over a stretch of time. Lots of players on that list were never in that conversation.
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His omission on that original list was a problem. Argument can be made he was the best player in the league over a stretch of time. Lots of players on that list were never in that conversation.
Trevor Linden sure thought so.
If there is one Canuck whose opinion I’ll always respect, it’s his.
In the years to come I think we’ll see plenty of “Conners” maybe even see one as early as next year ��
But I doubt we’ll see another Iginla-type player. And that’s also cuz the game is changing rapidly.
Wonder how many more Flames made the top 99 on that list.
Al Macinnis
Brett Hull
Joe Neiuwendyke?
if we are counting Hull then I would think Jagr and probably St Louis?
Gilmour?
this is 99 players over the last 55 years- probably most HOFers would make it? Lanny, Mullen etc?
ok I walk back that last comment a little bit- I count roughly 100-110 guys who you could say were from the post 67 era in the HOF right now (more than I might have guessed) and that doesn't include active and not yet eligibles. so maybe half the list or a little more will be HOFers- the borderline guys no
His omission on that original list was a problem. Argument can be made he was the best player in the league over a stretch of time. Lots of players on that list were never in that conversation.
People get too caught up in the stats. Iggy's career lines up probably with the worst possible era to play in for racking up goals and points. Goals per game literally plummeted right when he first entered the league and didn't really go back up consistently until he retired or was too old to capitalize on it.
IMO the best way to look at is your point that he was probably the best player in the NHL and putting up huge numbers on a bad/defensive hockey team.
He should be in the argument for top 5 goal scorers of all time.
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People get too caught up in the stats. Iggy's career lines up probably with the worst possible era to play in for racking up goals and points. Goals per game literally plummeted right when he first entered the league and didn't really go back up consistently until he retired or was too old to capitalize on it.
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and he was still one of the top 17 goal scorers of all time, all eligible on the list ahead of him except Andreychuk (whose career kicked in 15 years earlier at a great time for goal scoring ) is there even Mike Gartner. please.
and he was still one of the top 17 goal scorers of all time, all eligible on the list ahead of him except Andreychuk (whose career kicked in 15 years earlier at a great time for goal scoring ) is there even Mike Gartner. please.
Imo Lemieux Gretzky bossy and AO are top 4. After that Iggy is as good as anyone ever putting pucks in the net
I’ve been really enjoying this whole series. The list in general is pretty good I think although it skews a bit towards contemporary players (Letang?) There have been a few missteps. The Scott Stevens piece was a strange hatchet job and the Bergeron piece is a weird post modern thing where they take a random meaningless regular season game and break down his shifts. But for the most part I’ve enjoyed it all.
Other Flames on the list:
MacInnis - 37
Gilmour- 66
Nieuwendyk - 80
I like your top 4- before most of our time but probably the Rocket needs a spot in there
Esposito, the Hulls and Selanne comes to mind but Iggy has a strong claim in that top 10 or so for era adjusted sniping
I agree that all those guys are in the discussion if you adjust for era alone.
Hull is a top 5 guy but I look at how he and Cam Neely scored when they played with Oates and think Iggy never had an Oates. Hull scored like 300 goals in 4 years with Oates. Damn near half his career goals and never could come close to that once Oates left. Neely put up huge numbers with Oates too.
Local Boston Man #34 on The Athletic's Top 99
