It's that magical time of year again! Trade Deadline rumors! It's like cat-nip for hockey fans. it can make a reasonable fan all season long lose their shit and chase imaginary things up a wall.
Trade Deadline and Free Agency Summer has been like drugs for me. I crave rumors. I don't care how stupid they are, how unfounded they seem or the ones Rob Rossi manufactures for attention. I even read Eklund dice-rolled inspired bullshit he churns out daily.
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| that IS a shit crystal ball |
Hockey rumors are one of the best things about our sport and I welcome any feedback.
If you want to check out all free agents, capgeek has an entire listing of impending UFA players for next season here.
Jarome Iginla
2013 Unrestricted Free Agent
Position: Right Wing
Age: 35
Height: 6'1"
Weight: 214
Richard Trophy: 2
Ross, Pearson, Messier, Clancy: 1
Turn ons: Chocolate, Poetry, Red
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| what a player |
What a wet dream it would be to pick up Iginla and put him with Olympic teammate Crosby and Chris Kunitz (who as this is being written is in the top 5 in scoring)?
I am definitely not the first person to link the Penguins with Iginla. The popular belief is that a player like Iginla is heading into the final years of his career and a Stanley Cup becomes a paramount goal over money. Iginla is still a top notch player, he's a leader, he's tough. he's resilient, he can score, he can hit, he can fight, he's one of the most all-around players in the entire NHL and I stand by that fully. Being 35, his conditioning as afforded him not to miss many games over his career. Imagine just commanding all of that space around the net letting Sid skate wherever he wanted and burying his unreal passes by the dozen adding to his lofty 500+ total. It would immediately catapult the Penguins to overwhelming Stanley Cup favorites you would have to imagine.
Here is the cold shower to ruin your Iginla boner ... sorry.
If you are Feaster you try and sign him at all costs. He may take less money to stick around and get the young kids in line before he retires. I know hes into his 30's and that someone may think he's not worth 7million a year to stay with the Flames. He's been making 7 million a year from the Flames since 2005 and have signed 5 total contacts to stay there. Again, it's less than a month away and there is no deal in place. He's known no other team than the Flames and you would have to imagine him as a Shane Doan more than a Ray Bourque(nothing wrong with either). It's tough to tell what he's thinking really, it's just my feeling.
He gave a typical generic hockey quote here in January to the Calgary Sun:
Feaster has said:
“The directive here in Calgary, the objective here in Calgary, has not changed. From ownership right on through, our goal and our intent is to have Jarome Iginla spend his entire playing career with the Calgary Flames. “The one thing we don’t want is to talk to Jarome’s contract every day.”
This means nothing. A class act and captain like Iginla will say this 100 times out of 100 that's what great players do.
If you are Ray Shero and you are eyeballing him around trade deadline what would you offer a team for an unsigned in 2013 Iginla?
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| looks so damn good |
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| I'm not good at what I do. |
If you take the risk of keeping him and failing to sign him over the summer, you lose out on any possible return on a trade. Iginla can probably return a first or second round pick, a roster player, and maybe a prospect. I think Iginla owes Feaster and the Flames organization an explanation of his intentions for his future to avoid hurting the team he's loved for his whole career so far.
So back to my original hypothetical ... if you are Ray Shero who has 16 million in space this season (35mil on un-prorated contacts according to capgeek) do you try and either rent or sign Iginla?
Any team who trades for an un-signed Iginla runs a risk of him just going elsewhere over the summer, possibly back to Calgary. Is renting Iginla for a Cup run worth the assets he's worth?
When Ray Bourque went to the Avalanche, he talked with the GM of the Bruins first asking for a trade. Sinden badly wanted Bourque to have a chance to close out his career with a Cup win, and told Bourque, "This may not be your first choice, but this is the team I feel is best." On March 6, 2000, Bourque was traded to Colorado with fellow veteran Dave Andreychuk for Brian Rolston, Martin Grenier, Sammy Pahlsson and a first round draft pick.
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| so good ... |
In my personal opinion if we make a play for Iginla we need to know what his intentions are for the 2013-14 season. If he intends to test the market over the summer I would drastically decrease my offer - maybe a 2nd round and roster player - to have him around for a Cup run. Iginla is that one player who could do that for you. If he agrees to a trade-then contract situation I wouldn't mind dipping into our pool of bright young stars to enjoy Iginla in the black and vegas gold for 2-3 years.
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| courtesy of +Ryan Noble |
I personally would be happy around the 5 million range for 2 or 3 years but with the free agency market this summer, the new cap ceiling decresing to 64.3 million and the floor increasing 44 million, who the hell knows. Calgary will have 22 million of space to sign Iginla if they wish. Giving him 7 million a year to finish his career there wouldn't destroy their team.
Who knows what will happen this year at the deadline? I will hopefully get my hands on a bunch of rumors next week and address them all as best as I can. I can only use the mantra "In Shero We Trust" - it hasn't failed me yet.
6 Construxive Remarx