Jarome Iginla to retire on Monday

Ladies and gentlemen, get those tissues handy. The greatest Calgary Flames player of all time, Jarome Iginla, will announce his retirement from the National Hockey League at a press conference on Monday morning at 10:30 a.m. MT.

A native of St. Albert, Alberta, Iginla had a tremendous junior career with the Kamloops Blazers where he won a pair of Memorial Cups. Originally drafted by the Dallas Stars in the 1995 NHL Draft, he was traded to the Flames in exchange for holdout forward Joe Nieuwendyk in December 1995. He went pro with the Flames in the spring of 1996 and never looked back.

Iginla’s NHL career spanned 1,554 games (with Calgary, Pittsburgh, Boston, Colorado and Los Angeles) and saw him amass 625 goals and 1300 points, where he’s among the league’s all-time leaders in both categories. He leads the Flames all time in games, goals and points, and is the franchise’s longest-serving captain. He was one of the most productive NHL and international players of his era, with his career capped with a trip to the 2004 Stanley Cup Final and Olympic gold medal wins with Canada in 2002 and 2010.

Since Iginla’s last game was in 2017, he’ll be eligible for consideration in the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2020. We imagine the Flames will have his number 12 retired well before then.