Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Jarome Iginla Jersey card

Considering Ben Bishop, Alexandre Burrows and Kevin Shattenkirk were traded prior to Deadline Day, in my opinion, the most coveted player today was Jarome Iginla. Teams that should have gone after him include the Montréal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers and Ottawa Senators. The team that actually landed him was... the Los Angeles Kings.

Now, I'm aware others would say Radim Vrbata, Mark Streit and Thomas Vanek were more attractive and productive free agents to be, but none of these players were the best leader and captain of their generation, and though Iginla has slowed down with just 8 goals in 61 games this year on the worst team in the NHL, his 619 career goals still place him 16th in league history; there's no way he forgot how to shoot and/or where the net is. All he needs is a guy who can pass the puck well and is quick enough to cover for him a bit in the defensive zone - and L.A. has that in Anze Kopitar; Montréal has it in Tomas Plekanec, and Edmonton has it in both David Desharnais and Leon Draisaitl.

Here he is from his days captaining the Flames, on card #AF-JI from Upper Deck's 2006-07 SP Game-Used set and Authentic Fabrics sub-set:
It shows him wearing Calgary's red uniform but features a white game-worn jersey swatch.

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