Mark Spector

Mark Spector is a columnist for sportsnet.ca

"I'm going to be around 70 points (this season). It's not enough."

Flames fans are wondering if it is time to change the face of the franchise.

CALGARY - There are a myriad of questions here in Calgary, as a city that could never get used to first-round flops is now being asked to get its head around a team that won’t even get that far.

They're asking questions. Big questions.

But as their captain looks at his lousy stretch run and admits, "It's not enough," Flames fans had better be careful about the question so many are pondering this spring:

If you could trade Jarome Iginla to Boston for the second overall pick in the June draft - one for one - do you pull the trigger?

The answer? Be careful what you ask for, Flames fans. You just might get it.

"It's been hard," Iginla said Tuesday morning, in a stark admission after the morning skate. "Unfortunately this last little stretch, I haven't been playing very well. It's when you feel like the team needs it the most; needs all of us to be our best."

He is undoubtedly the face of this franchise. In our books, the best player this franchise has ever had.

He is Calgary's Joe Sakic. Their Mats Sundin. Their Mike Modano.

Their Steve Yzerman - that rare great player with an opportunity to play a great career in the same jersey. Yet, the trade talk will only grow from here, if Calgary is eliminated from contention this week.

"I've had a tough stretch," Iginla, soon to be 33, said of his time since the Olympics. "We've had a lot of trouble scoring goals, and I know that's part of my role. When you lose 2-1 and 1-0 … the group that's on the powerplay, the group that's in scoring positions and opportunities, that's your job."

In a city where the locals have become used to Iginla lifting their team on to his shoulders and carrying them as far as he can, they are punching holes in his cape now. He has one goal in 14 games, and as the Flames season fizzles, their captain is riding a nine-game goalless streak. .

The call-in show topic here is simple: Has the time come to recycle Iginla, the way they recycled Joe Nieuwendyk to acquire Iginla 15 years ago?

They reason that the farm system is barren. The Flames haven't drafted well, and GM Darryl Sutter traded away his 1st- and 2nd-round picks this June for Olli Jokinen, who is now a New York Ranger. Sutter also dealt an impact player in Dion Phaneuf to Toronto this season for a group of supporting players, none of whom are on Iginla's level.

Iginla's production has toppled over the past four years, from 94 points, to 98, to 89, to 69 today, with three games to play. But since the Cup run of 2003-04, Iginla's centremen have been Craig Conroy, Daymond Langkow, Mathew Lombardi, Jokinen and Matt Stajan.

Like Philadelphia and its goalies, the Flames have failed to furnish Iginla with the necessary centreman to keep his production up. It's too easy to check one player, and that is a big part of Iginla's decline, though he'd never admit it.

"I'm going to be around 70 points (this season). It's not enough," he said bluntly.

Iginla wore an 'A' in Vancouver at the Olympics, where he played on a line with Sid Crosby and set up this country's biggest goal since 1972.

His health is above average, his character impregnable. Born on Canada Day, he is - some might argue "was" - the ultimate Canadian hockey player: a power forward who wins battles, hits, fights and scores 30-or more goals for nine consecutive seasons now.

Yet today, in bars across Calgary, they are wondering if it would be better next season to have a 33-year-old future Hall of Famer named Iginla, or an 18-year named Tyler Seguin. Or perhaps Taylor Hall.

"It's sports," Iginla reasons when you ask him about the wavering fan support. "I'm not trying to live in the past either. The past so many games, I haven't been very good. It's not for lack of want or trying - I'm in a rut. I've got to work to get out of it.

"Do I think my best years are behind, me? No, I don't."

Asked point blank if he is still happy in Calgary, Iginla said convincingly that he is.

"I'm very happy here," he repeated. "It's a great family city, close to home (St. Albert, an Edmonton suburb). Been here a long time, kinda grew up here. Hockey-wise, the organization wants to win.

"It has been a tough year. I wish I were producing better, and we were in a better spot as a team," he said, alluding to the trade talk. "But it's part of that passion. As an athlete, I want to play where, when it's good, everyone is into it. The flipside is, when it's not, they're into it and they're upset."

They're upset in Calgary today.

They'd be even more upset a few years down the road, if this organization made the mistake of trading away the best player it has ever had.