Report: Flames will honour Jarome Iginla’s number on March 2

A single player owns the majority of the Calgary Flames’ offensive records. Soon he’ll have a spot in the Saddledome’s rafters. Reports are indicating that the  Flames will honour Jarome Iginla’s jersey number prior to the Saturday, March 2 game against Minnesota.

The Flames all but confirmed the reports with a tease earlier today on their social media channels.

Iginla officially retired over the summer following an illustrious career that saw him put up some astounding (and consistent) offensive production. He played 1,554 regular season games with the Flames, Penguins, Bruins, Avalanche and Kings, posting 625 goals and 1,300 points over 20 seasons. Over his career, he won quite literally everything except a Stanley Cup. Acquired by the Flames from Dallas on Dec. 19, 1995 for Joe Nieuwendyk, Iginla flat-out was the most important player in franchise history. He’s eligible for induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2020 and is widely expected to be inducted on his first possible ballot.

The burning question among Flames fans right now is “Will Iginla’s number be retired, or will he be give the Forever A Flame treatment?” Well, this entirely our speculation, but compare the typeface on the Flames’ Twitter tease to the banners for Lanny McDonald and Mike Vernon.

It’ll probably be a retirement.

Update: Pat Steinberg (of Sportsnet 960 The Fan and this site) has confirmed that it’s a number retirement, not Forever A Flame.