Hey, remember Jarome Iginla?
Sure you do! He’s one of the best players in National Hockey League history, and surely one of the best in recent history. He spent 16 seasons with the Calgary Flames and basically re-wrote the franchise’s record book while being a pillar in the community. (Most Flames fans from the early 2000s have a story about a sweet Iginla goal they witnessed, an endearing encounter with him in the community during his tenure, or both.) He’s currently serving as special assistant to Flames general manager Craig Conroy.
Anyway, the NHL is commemorating the first 25 years of the current century with a series of Quarter-Century Teams. While the NHL is doing fan balloting to determine the top 25 players of the past 25 years, our pals at Daily Faceoff conducted a staff vote to determine their own list.
Iginla landed at 21st on Daily Faceoff’s list. Here’s what DFO’s Matt Larkin had to say about Iginla:
Iginla was the game’s premier power forward in his day, a deadly goal scorer, a great leader and a vicious competitor who would readily drop the gloves. He led the league in goals twice and points once, was a three-time first-team all-star and, perhaps most impressively, buried 625 goals – 556 since 2000 – despite playing a significant chunk of his career during one of hockey’s lowest-scoring eras.
Since Jan. 1, 2000, just three NHL players have scored more goals than Iginla: Alex Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby and Steven Stamkos. He’s also third in even-strength goals, fourth in power play goals and fifth in game-winning goals. He’s also eighth since the beginning of 2000 in points. In terms of Flames players in that span, Iginla leads the team in goals (244 more than Sean Monahan), assists (88 more than Johnny Gaudreau) and points (334 more than Gaudreau).
Iginla had longevity, tenacity, and an absolute nose for the net during his playing career. Those qualities are what helped him define the Flames during his tenure, and they’re what made him one of the NHL’s best players of the quarter century.
Head on over to Daily Faceoff to check out the rest of their list!
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