Perhaps that wasn’t the last Calgary Flames fans have seen of Jarome Iginla after all.
In fact, after the performance he put in as the first star Wednesday at the Saddledome there are plenty of reasons to believe that not only should he come back for another season, there’s a good chance he will.
No, not with the Flames.
With the Kings.
To stay in the NHL you need only one dance partner, and Iginla is cutting quite a rug with him now.
Since being reunited with Darryl Sutter in Los Angeles, Iginla has five goals in 13 outings, including three crucial game-winners.
Injecting passion, emotion and much-needed offence, he’s done everything Sutter and the Kings could possibly have wanted since his return, including fight.
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After a lost season in Colorado where his eight goals had many assuming the 39-year-old had finally lost that last step needed to keep up in today’s game, he may very well prolong his career with his time in Tinseltown.
Sutter is a fiercely loyal man whose history with Iginla goes back 15 years to Calgary, which included the Flames’ improbable run to the 2004 Stanley Cup final when the captain almost single-handedly willed his club to within one win of a ring.
Sutter has long put huge stock in the type of experience and leadership Iginla can bring and while Kings GM Dean Lombardi has plenty of tough choices to make this summer you know his coach will be imploring him to bring Iginla back.
“That’s a guy who deserves to win a Stanley Cup,” said Sutter after Iginla’s stirring Gordie Howe hat trick and game-winner kept his team mathematically alive in the playoff race Wednesday in Calgary. “He’s a great role model for young players.”
Having already pocketed almost $100 million in salary over his 21 years in the league, Iginla’s desire to continue playing would surely open him up to the possibility of signing for $1 or $2 million for the privilege of playing in his 40s, as he always said he wanted.
Otherwise, the cap-tight Kings couldn’t make it work.
Showing up in camp almost every year of his career as the fittest player on the team, Iginla is still a fitness freak.
He’s also still tough as nails, as Deryk Engelland could attest Wednesday when Iginla opened up his forehead in a big-boys tilt.
No, he’s never been the best skater on the ice, but he’s one of the game’s greatest trigger-men, sitting 16th all time with 624 goals. That includes 100 game-winners — sixth most in NHL lore.
A cult hero in Calgary, where he played 17 years, Iginla’s on-ice bow and wave as the game’s first star Wednesday gave the fans a chance to salute him for what they assume was one final skate at the Dome.
It was brief, it was powerful and fans would delight in the possibility it might not be the last time he returns to town wearing skates.
Sutter’s penchant to keep putting faith in proven veterans was evident last year when he asked Lombardi to acquire Vincent Lecavalier, much to the surprise of a hockey world that had written off the 35-year-old former No. 1 pick.
Lecavalier proved to be serviceable down the stretch for the Kings, as was Robyn Regehr four years earlier when Sutter rescued the then-32-year-old defenceman from a surefire retirement in Buffalo to help the Kings win a Stanley Cup.
Sutter is all about trust, and in Iggy he trusts.
As do several of his new teammates, who have been thoroughly impressed with Iginla since he arrived March 1.
“He comes to the rink every day and gives it his all and I think for the majority, if not all of us, we’re privileged to be able to be in his presence and same locker room and to see him being professional and how he prepares and how he brings his emotions during the game,” said Anze Kopitar. “Obviously that’s a future Hall of Famer that everyone in here can learn a lot from.”
They sure learned plenty Wednesday when Iginla re-ignited the passion he put on display so often when it mattered most.
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Indeed, no other team expressed interest in Iginla at the trade deadline when Colorado GM Joe Sakic did his former Olympic teammate a solid by gifting him to the Kings for a conditional fourth-round pick — a pick that won’t move if the Kings miss the playoffs.
No one should have been surprised it was Sutter’s team that gave him a shot at resurrecting his career.
Keep in mind, last season Iginla had 22 goals. The year before he had 29, and before that 30.
He still has the fire and that world-class release. Sutter sees it, cherishes it and wishes his dressing room was filled with the desire to win Iginla has.
With Kopitar, Jonathan Quick, Drew Doughty and Jeff Carter to build around, the Kings are sure to be playoff contenders next year. And if they aren’t, Iginla could be packaged up again at the deadline, assuming he continues to contribute.
In Sutter’s eyes it’s a match made in heaven, and Iginla can’t possibly disagree.
Now it’s up to Lombardi to decide if he sees it the same way.
He’s likely the only one willing to consider prolonging ol’ Iggy’s storied career.