Utah HC Snipes Iginla After Flames Fail to Pay Trade Ransom
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If you're a pessimist, you watched the owners of the NHL's newest franchise steal Tij Iginla — son of Calgary Flames advisor and Hall of Famer Jarome Iginla — at sixth overall on Friday night.
An optimist might remember that the Calgary Flames didn't draft Jarome, either. They picked up arguably the best player ever to wear the Flaming C on his chest in a trade with the Dallas Stars before he ever suiting up in the NHL.
Not that there is any guarantee the Flames explore the same with his son. However, the talk on the draft floor at The Sphere in Las Vegas was that Calgary and Utah did explore a swap that would have moved the Flames into sixth and in position to draft Tij Iginla.
It's been reported that the potential deal was too rich and complicated for the Flames to consider and Utah decided to draft the next face of their franchise instead.
Iginla essentially priced his way out of the Flames price range with an epic finish to his first full year in the WHL after a taste as a 16-year-old. A 47-goal, 84-point season in 64 games with the Kelowna Rockets shot Iginla up draft boards. Then he added nine goals a half-dozen assists in 11 playoff games. He followed that up winning god as a top forward for Team Canada at the U-18 World Championships.
It looked like he might fall to ninth when the Anaheim Ducks went off the board to grab Beckett Sennecke at third overall, but Utah was looking to make a splash the way the elder Iginla made an impact in Salt Lake City in the 2002 Winter Olympics. (Jarome had two goals in the gold-medal game for Team Canada).
"He didn't say much. To be honest, I don't know. Maybe congratulations. I don't even know. I kind of blacked out," Tij said when asked what Jarome said in the big moment. Prior to that, he told him to enjoy the moment.
"It goes fast, and it will be a day that I'll be looking back on. This is one of the proudest days of my life."
The Flames went with a top offensive defenceman in Zayne Parekh at ninth overall and added Russian winger Matvei Gridin from the Muskegon Lumberjacks of the United States Hockey League at the 28 spot.