Seravalli: Unassuming Iginla set to take his place among hockey greats

[squiggs96]

https://www.tsn.ca/unassuming-jarome...eats-1.1488677

Iginla, who turns 43 next week, finished his NHL career with an even 1,300 points – 625 goals and 675 assists. He was the NHL’s dominant power forward for more than a decade, notching two 50-plus goal seasons, with five campaigns at better than a point per game. He was also the heartbeat of the Calgary Flames.


For being such a prolific goal scorer, Iginla will perhaps best be remembered for assisting on the Golden Goal at the Vancouver Olympics in 2010, which is in the conversation for the most famous goal in hockey history. The sound of
shouting “Iggy!” is seared on the brain of anyone who watched.


He also scored twice in the gold-medal game at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, helping Canada beat the U.S. 5-2 to capture the country’s first men’s Olympic hockey gold in 50 years.

Nice article on Iginla ahead of the HHOF announcement.

[Jacks]

Should be about as automatic as one of these votes gets, probably the last of the "power forwards".

[Monahammer]

I will never, ever forgive the writers for the hart hit job on iginla. Absolute malarkey that Jose Theodore got a Hart trophy.

A unanimous decision here would ease SOME of that pain.

[looooob]

paging ACs Iginla 03-04 playoff video...talk about a player at his finest

[Huntingwhale]

I absolutely love that seemingly every year since he retired, there has been big fanfare for Iggy with a celebration in his honor almost yearly. Whether it be his retirement contract, jersey hanging, and now HHOF selection, it's always great to see Iggy in the news.

I'm kind of sad this might be his last official hockey recognition ceremony. As mentioned, he's had his retirement contract ceremony, jersey ceremony and now this. Is this is the last big ceremony in his honor? Very likely so I'm going to savor every moment of this. What a way to go if it is.

[looooob]

man , if only someone could come up with a list of the top 100 players in NHL history, I'd be dying to see where Iginla ranked

[Zulu29]

Originally Posted by Huntingwhale

I absolutely love that seemingly every year since he retired, there has been big fanfare for Iggy with a celebration in his honor. Whether it be his retirement contract, jersey hanging, and now HHOF selection, it's always great to see Iggy in the news.

I'm kind of sad this might be his last official hockey recognition ceremony. As mentioned, he's had his retirement contract, jersey ceremony and now this. Is this is last big ceremony in his honor? Very likely so I'm going to savor every moment of this.

What about the statue of him in front of the new rink?

[Huntingwhale]

Originally Posted by Zulu29

What about the statue of him in front of the new rink?

Yessss please!!

[Monahammer]

Originally Posted by looooob

man , if only someone could come up with a list of the top 100 players in NHL history, I'd be dying to see where Iginla ranked

Lol Staaaahp

Seriously though what a #### show that list was.

[SeanCharles]

He is the one player I would vehemently argue with my dad about...

My dad would always argue he was overrated and the team shouldn’t be built around a winger.

I agreed with the latter part but will never forget how dominant Iggy was in his prime. He was the best player in the NHL for at least a few seasons before the end of the dead puck era.

The key was we needed a C to build a 1st line.

He never really had a true 1st line center to play with in his career.

Can you imagine we had traded Phaneuf for Carter..

Tanguay-Carter-Iginla

He will always be one of my favourite players of all time, if not the clear cut favourite.

2002 Olympics were so epic as it had a tonne of my favourite players on it, Iggy, Sakic, Mario, Fleury, Nieuwendyk, MacInnis, Kariya, Shanahan, Foote, Niedermayer etc.

What a team.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

You can see where he's coming from. Because Crosby is a center, they didn't necessarily need to surround him with great linemates for him to be successful, a lesson the Penguins learned and applied repeatedly. They therefore had themselves a really good first line, regardless of whether they had a first line quality LW or RW to put on it.

That being said, if the best player in the league at a given moment in time happens to be a winger, you build your team around a winger.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

You can see where he's coming from. Because Crosby is a center, they didn't necessarily need to surround him with great linemates for him to be successful, a lesson the Penguins learned and applied repeatedly. They therefore had themselves a really good first line, regardless of whether they had a first line quality LW or RW to put on it.

That being said, if the best player in the league at a given moment in time happens to be a winger, you build your team around a winger.

Agreed. The Washington Capitals followed this blueprint to a championship.

Sent from my SM-G960W using Tapatalk

[You Need a Thneed]

I just looked up that 01-02 season.

Iggy was a +27.

The team was a -19, and adjusting that for PP goals for and against removed, was -30.

When Iginla was on the ice that year, the Flames were +27.

When Iginla was NOT on the ice that year, the Flames were -57.

He was insanely good.

[Sylvanfan]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

Agreed. The Washington Capitals followed this blueprint to a championship.

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Except that Iginla never got to play with anyone remotely as good as Backstrom, Kuznetsov to play with. Another winger who's won cups and is one of the best offensive players in Kane still had team mates like Toews, Sharp, and Hossa to help him.

The Flames never really did get Iginla another true top end piece to work with. Tanguay and Camalleri were probably the two closest guys. Jokinen was supposed to be, but didn't quite work out.

[looooob]

Originally Posted by Sylvanfan

Except that Iginla never got to play with anyone remotely as good as Backstrom, Kuznetsov to play with.

hell he and Kipper almost did it with Conroy, Gelinas and Donovan playing the roles of Backstrom, Kuznetsov and Oshie

[SeanCharles]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

You can see where he's coming from. Because Crosby is a center, they didn't necessarily need to surround him with great linemates for him to be successful, a lesson the Penguins learned and applied repeatedly. They therefore had themselves a really good first line, regardless of whether they had a first line quality LW or RW to put on it.

That being said, if the best player in the league at a given moment in time happens to be a winger, you build your team around a winger.

I meant that I agree you shouldn’t build your team around a winger in the sense that you need to have other high end pieces that are part of that build.

At the top of the list would be a #1 center to share the offensive load.

We seemed so focused on building from the net out that we lost sight of acquiring a C to play with him.

I know they don’t grow on trees but the opportunities were there as our defence was flush with potential trade chips.

A star goalie, a star winger, a star d group doesn’t seem like the right recipe.

[FireGilbert]

Yeah the Flames problem wasn’t building around a winger it was focusing too much on defencemen. Those rumours of Regher in a package for Thornton and Phaneuf for Carter are depressing in hindsight.

Also the drafting and trading picks didn’t help either. A big reason Washington was able to eventually build a cup winner around Ovechkin was their hoarding of draft picks that led to Kuznetsov and others.

[Pockets18]

Originally Posted by Sylvanfan

Except that Iginla never got to play with anyone remotely as good as Backstrom, Kuznetsov to play with. Another winger who's won cups and is one of the best offensive players in Kane still had team mates like Toews, Sharp, and Hossa to help him.

The Flames never really did get Iginla another true top end piece to work with. Tanguay and Camalleri were probably the two closest guys. Jokinen was supposed to be, but didn't quite work out.

Yeah this is something people seem to forget, Iggy was a one man show for most of his career. You look at the superstars that played during his time and they all had other superstars to help them out. Yzerman had Fedorov and Lidstrom, Crosby had Malkin, Sakic had Forsberg, etc.

[jeffman]

Originally Posted by FireGilbert

Yeah the Flames problem wasn’t building around a winger it was focusing too much on defencemen. Those rumours of Regher in a package for Thornton and Phaneuf for Carter are depressing in hindsight.

Also the drafting and trading picks didn’t help either. A big reason Washington was able to eventually build a cup winner around Ovechkin was their hoarding of draft picks that led to Kuznetsov and others.

You’re assuming carter would want to play here. Remember the fit he threw when he got traded to Columbus?

[CroFlames]

We all know how truly good Iggy was on this board. He's my favorite all time player and he was a gem on the recent 31 thoughts podcast.

I'd argue he was snubbed a 3rd time that is less talked about. Everyone agrees the NHL top 100 was a criminal snub, as was the debacle with Hart voting in 2002.

But I think he should have been the Captain in 2010 Vancouver.

Why did the NHL and Hockey Canada snub this guy while they fall over themselves to promote other stars?