RetiriNg IgiNla lauded aS coNSuMMate Pro
Coaches remember iconic Flames’ captain setting indelible example
The Kamloops Blazers had held a spring camp, just outside of Edmonton in Sherwood Park.
It was 1992 and Jarome Iginla, then an undrafted bantam-aged player for the St. Albert midget AAA squad, had turned heads. “Him and his mom and his grandparents were there and Bob Brown (the Blazers general manager at the time) and I offered him a Western Hockey League contract,” recalls Don Hay, then head coach of the Blazers. “We told him to take his time and think about it and get legal representative to look at it. “He had it back to us by the end of the day.”
It was clear that the high-scoring right-winger wanted to play, from Day 1.
And, making a major impact as a 16-year-old scoring six goals and 23 assists in 48 games in the 1993-94 season, he did.
He’d score 33 goals and 38 assists in 72 games the following year in the regular season as the Blazers won their second straight Memorial Cup.
Iginla, a former 11th overall draft choice of the Dallas Stars before being traded to the Flames for Joe Nieuwendyk, added another 63 goals and 73 assists in 63 games in 1995-96 for 136 points and added 120 penalty minutes. He was named the WHL’s most valuable player.
So, when the Blazers had been ousted from the WHL playoffs and Iginla had been called up to the Calgary Flames for his big league debut immediately, no one was surprised that he made an impact as an 18-year-old fresh off signing his first professional contract. “I had been all over my team (during the playoffs), ‘ Why couldn’t you handle Iggy?’ ‘Why couldn’t you handle Iggy,’ ” said Mike Babcock, then the head coach of the Spokane Chiefs who would eventually eliminate the Blazers in 1996. “He played for the Flames the next night and was smacking Chelly (Chris Chelios) around and guys like that. My guys were all over me, like, ‘You wanted us to handle that? NHL guys can’t handle him.’ ” Hay, who had been promoted that season to an assistant coaching role with the Flames, remembers being impressed, too. “For him to make that step and not be intimidated, that was good to see,” he said. “He just played with so much composure and played with a lot of professionalism as a young player and played with a lot of respect for the league.” Two nights after his debut, he notched his first NHL goal — a playoff marker — against Ed Belfour. The Flames were swept by the Chicago Blackhawks in that game but the tone had been set. Iginla was going to be the difference-maker in these parts for a very long time.
And, for a long time, he was one of the seemingly only difference makers.
“I was so lucky to have a chance to coach him. He was such a special kid,” recalled Pierre Page, Iginla’s first NHL coach who was the Flames’ bench boss from 1995-97. “Jarome arrived in Calgary when the team was selling all of the parts and he was there for 17 and a half years … holy smokes, everyone was gone. Nieuwendyk was gone. Al MacInnis was gone. Gary Suter was gone. Joel Otto was gone. Joey Mullen was gone. It was a totally different team.
“Calgary was trying to figure out how to win with scoring two-anda-half goals per game. You needed three to four to win. That was a tough career in a time when the Flames were trying to figure out if they could spend less money.” Suddenly, 2004 rolled round. The Calgary Flames were suddenly thrust into the playoff spotlight, and their captain began gaining media attention.
That spring, Darryl Sutter had been asked: ‘What makes Iginla so special?’
“Well,” Sutter had started and, in typical Sutter fashion, was en route to giving a brief answer, “probably for the same reason you think he is.”
A pause. Then …
“He’s a big power guy. He’s an old-school player. Plays a lot of minutes. Plays power play. Plays penalty kill. Plays against big players. Plays against skilled players. Plays the last minute of a period. Plays the first minute of a period. He’s healthy. A good guy. A great family guy. He’s from Alberta. He’s good with the media.” Iginla had been giving the ‘C’ that training camp by his linemate and pal Craig Conroy.
That, according to Sutter, changed everything that 2003-’04 season.
“The biggest reason that he’s taken a step forward this year, the biggest reason is because he’s assumed the leadership of the team,” he said. “Before, he was the face of the team, and it was the wrong sort of pressure to have on him, even in the locker-room. ‘Well, if Jarome doesn’t score, we can’t win.’ Or, ‘It’s all right if the Flames lose and Jarome has a big game.’ It doesn’t work, it didn’t work, and it’s unfair to the player.
“It has to be about the team. I think he’s grabbed that.” Added Sutter. “He wanted to be the captain of the team. There’s a lot of captains who wear the C, but it doesn’t make them the leader of the team,” said Sutter. “For different reasons, he has become the leader of the team. I think that’s why he became a better player.” The Stanley Cup didn’t happen that year — and, sadly, never happened in Iginla’s NHL career which officially comes to a close with his retirement Monday, fittingly at the Scotiabank Saddledome where it all began.
But, just like his NHL debut, there have been plenty of big time moments over the years.
Fast forward to 2010. Chosen to represent Canada at the Vancouver Olympics, Iginla was part of an assembled “super team” which culminated with that slick, quick feed to Sidney Crosby for one of the most iconic moments in Canadian sports history. No. 12 to No. 87 — the Golden Goal.
“How big the moment was, in 2010 when Iggy made the pass and Sid scored the goal. To me, that’s pretty impressive,” Babcock, who was the head coach of the Canadian team, said. “Any time you get the best-of-the-best together and there’s another level these guys can get to, the experience is something you dream about.
“The great players in the big moments, they seem to excel. They stay calm and cool and collected and are able to execute. He was no different.”
Iginla always had a penchant for big moments.
Hay remembers him scoring the game-winner as a 16-year-old in Game 6 of the Western Conference final against the Portland Winterhawks.
“Right there, you knew he could play with a lot of composure at different times of the game,” Hay said. “The thing about Jarome, he always wanted to be out there in key situations.”
But the common theme — from every coach — is about Iginla’s makeup as a person.
“He was an incredible character kid,” Page said. “The way he worked off the ice. The way he worked in practice. The way he worked during a game. It was incredible. He was like Mark Messier. He was a skilled, tough kid … Coatsey (then GM Al Coates) asked me before the trade about him and I said, ‘Oh my God, I love this kid.
“He’s going to be an incredible player.’ ”