Seattle Kraken Could Draft Hall-Of-Famer's Son

The Seattle Kraken on Tuesday will learn their place in the 1st round of June’s NHL Draft.

The annual draft lottery determines the order of selection for the first 16 picks in the first round. It’ll be televised beginning at 3:30 pm Pacific by ESPN. The Kraken, currently slotted to choose 8th, have a 6% chance of rising to first overall in the draft order.

Should they remain at #8, speculation who they’ll take in the 1st round has included a Hall-of-Famer’s son.

A little background: when his 625-goal, 1,300-point, 1,040-PIMs career finally ended, Jarome Iginla was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2021.

Candice Ward-USA TODAY Sports

Iginla’s retired sweater #12 hangs proudly from the rafters at the Calgary Saddledome, where he starred for 16 seasons. So naturally, Flames fans are anxious for the team to select his son Tij Iginla at the Draft next month in Las Vegas.

(That’s Tij, second from left in the above photo, at dad’s number retirement ceremony in 2019.)

Kraken Could Thwart Iginla Homecoming

FlamesNation’s managing editor Ryan Pike worries about the team one place ahead of Calgary in the draft order.

“Let’s assume that the draft order does not change – San Jose drafts first overall and Chicago second overall, and so on.

“Tij Iginla was a big part of Canada’s Under-18 World Championship win. He had 12 points overall, including three points in the gold medal game. He really elevated his game during the tournament, and that performance could be the difference that pushes him decidedly into the top 10 of the 2024 draft.

“While a lot of teams could use somebody like Iginla, the Seattle Kraken are slated to draft eighth overall and they could be a concern. Why? Well, the Kraken heavily scout the Western Hockey League and Iginla’s played two seasons on the coast, the first with the Seattle Thunderbirds and the second with the Kelowna Rockets.”

The younger Iginla had an explosive offensive season with the Rockets, scoring 47 goals and 84 points in 64 games. He stayed scorching hot in 11 playoff games, notching nine more goals and 15 points.

Strong Young Branches Of “Big Tree”

Tij has two hockey playing siblings. Older sister Jade led Brown University in scoring, while younger brother Joe plays for an under-18 team coached by their father.

Perhaps you’re wondering where Tij Iginla, pronounced “Teeje,” got his name. Tij is his dad’s middle name. More accurately, it’s ONE of his dad’s middle names. On his birth certificate, it reads “Jarome Arthur-Leigh Adekunle Tij Junior Elvis Iginla.”

From The Hockey Writers: “As Iginla explains it, Arthur-Leigh is his dad’s middle name, and Adekunle was his first name in Nigeria before he came to Canada at age 18. His dad changed his name to Elvis ‘because he thought it was cool,’ and Tij, a name he gave his son, was short for Tijani which was his grandfather’s (on his father’s side) name in Nigeria. Iginla, by the way, means “big tree” in Yoruba.