CALGARY — It was some of the greatest subterfuge in hockey trading history, and in the end, Pittsburgh Penguins GM Ray Shero and Calgary Flames GM Jay Feaster reunited the leading roles from Vancouver 2010.
Jarome Iginla has played his last game with the Flames. In fact, while his general manager was consummating a trade to the Penguins Wednesday, the iconic right-winger was watching at home, left out of the lineup with the deal imminent.
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Iginla will hold a media availability Thursday morning at the Saddledome. Then it’s off to Pittsburgh, where an old friend awaits.
Iginla to Crosby. Remember that, Canada?
Well, get used to it again. There could be four rounds of that call coming up this spring.
On a night when Twitter (and every other medium) got head faked with the bowl of chowder, Feaster and Shero emerged as The Champs. Or, at least the Penguins GM was crowned a victor, as Shero just cleared the table at the 2013 deadline.
On Feaster, we’ll have to wait and see. He brings in two American-born NCAA forwards — Kenneth Agostino and Ben Hanowski — and a first-round pick that should be No. 30 overall, as Pittsburgh looks like a lock to win the Stanley Cup now, after adding Brenden Morrow, and defenceman Douglas Murray earlier in the week.
Feaster has a penchant for NCAA players, but has a brutal record at the draft. And the Flames haven’t developed many good young players in the past 15 years.
If the drafting and development doesn’t improve, the Flames won’t either. We may have been wrong on Boston, but you can take that prediction to the bank.
That’s a column for another day, however. On Wednesday night, a process unfolded that was like none other, with the hockey world thrown off the scent by a Boston rumour.
When it was done, Iginla took one huge step towards adding a Stanley Cup to an NHL career that lacks only that one final accomplishment.
He was not at the rink Wednesday, and saved his farewells for Thursday.
“It was time we moved on to another chapter,” said Feaster, who stubbornly refuses to use the ‘R’ word. “We want to retool to the point we are a … legitimate playoff team.
“I don’t want to use the rebuild word.”
He can call what he wants, but it says here, the rebuild is officially on in Calgary.
When you trade your 35-year-old captain and future Hall of Famer for two kids who haven’t played their first pro game yet, it is a rebuild.
When the Flames open up their cupboards over the next week and find themselves with a whole bunch of draft picks in return for contracts dumped, again, it is a rebuild.
And when Feaster goes into the free agent market this summer and finds not a single ‘A’ free agent interested in joining a lottery team, he’ll have a rebuild on his hands.
Working against the common good in Calgary, the Flames beat Colorado 4-3 to move into 25th place in the NHL standings. Beat Columbus on Friday, and they’ll be back up to that familiar ninth or tenth overall pick that Calgary has squandered for much of the past two decades.
The Flames’ best players are old, and their prospects are few. If they try to shortcut this rebuild, it will be another mistake.
The best thing this franchise could do is lose out and draft 6-6 defenceman Seth Jones or centre Nathan MacKinnon.
Either would be the best Flames prospect by some margin, and would be a magnet around which to put together Calgary 2.0.
“There’s a gap … from those 18, 19, 20-year olds that we like, to 27, 28, 29. That’s where we need to start filling,” said Feaster of his roster.
The two kids are still playing in the NCAA tournament this weekend.
Hanowski is a senior and could play games with Calgary before the season is out. Agostino may return to school next year.
Calgary now ices only two players every night that were drafted by the organization — T.J. Brodie and Michael Backlund.
And they just traded away the best acquisition Calgary ever made, dealing veteran Joe Nieuwendyk for some kid named Iginla back in 1996.
It’s all good for Iginla now, sidling up to the best player in hockey on a Pittsburgh roster so stocked it appears unstoppable.
The roster he leaves behind however, it’s mighty stoppable, and going to need much work.
So long, Jarome. Hello, rebuild.
Feaster can call it what he wants. But he better roll his sleeves up.
It’s been a long time coming in Calgary, and as the Iginla moves on, that train named rebuild has arrived.