Calgary Flames announce Jarome Iginla’s retirement
The Calgary Flames announced the retirement for one of the greatest players to ever play the game, Jarome Iginla.
It’s a sad day. Not only for Calgary Flames fans but for hockey fans in general. Calgary Flames legend, Jarome Iginla, has officially announced his retirement. It seems like most hockey fans all over Twitter are upset about the news of Jarome Iginla announcing his retirement. The Flames will be holding a press conference at the ‘Dome on Monday morning at 10:30 am MT with Iginla in attendance for him to officially hang up his skates.
Not only is Iginla one of the greatest players to ever play the game, he’s also one of the best players who doesn’t have Stanley Cup. No, I’m still not over 2004, thanks for asking.
Jarome Iginla is ranked first overall in Flames franchise history in games played (1219), goals (525), assists (570), and points (1095). He is 15th in NHL history in goals and only one player higher than him on that list (Mike Gartner) also doesn’t have a Stanley Cup. Iginla had 12 consecutive non-lockout-shortened 30-goal seasons and became just the seventh player in NHL history to achieve 30 goals for that many consecutive seasons. He also became the 20th player in NHL history to reach the 600-goal milestone.
In 2003, Iginla was named to the EA Sports NHL Cover 03 and became the first black man to be on the cover of the game. On that note, he became the first black-Canadian captain of any NHL team and, growing up, he thought he could be a successful black man in the NHL because of seeing Grant Fuhr‘s success and, years later, would end up playing on the same team as Grant Fuhr.
Not only were his hockey skills impeccable, it seems that many minority children also looked up to Iggy, like Iginla did with Fuhr. In fact, he mentioned in an interview with ESPN that he loves having children believe they can be hockey players because they see Iginla being successful in the NHL.
Iginla will finish his career off with 11 Gordie Howe Hat Tricks – nine more than Gordie Howe himself. It seems fitting that his final game ever at the ‘Dome (when he fought Deryk Engelland), will be capped off by a Gordie Howe Hat Trick.
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Good luck in the next chapter of your life, Iggy! The weather in Calgary will forever be -12.