Congratulations are in order for Penguins legend Jarome Iginla. He received the phone call today to join hockey immortality with his invite to the Hockey Hall of Fame. He was a slam dunk first ballot player. He joins another Penguins legend Marian Hossa who also got the call today. Iginla scored 625 times and had 1,300 points in 1,554 games with a good chunk of that coming in the doldrums of the clutch and grab era. He is a two-time winner of the Rocket Richard Trophy for most goals (2002, 2004). He also won the Art Ross Trophy and Lester B. Pearson Trophy (now Ted Lindsay) in 2002.
Today I wanted to take a look back to Jarome Iginla’s short tenure with the Penguins.
Iggy Iggy Iggy can’t you see
Sometimes your deployment just hypnotize me
And I just love your off wing ways
Guess that’s why they joke, and you’re still great
The main takeaway I have seen throughout the years is that Dan Bylsma misused Iginla during his time as a Penguin and thus limited Iginla’s ability to help the team. The main supporting arguments for that assessment are the fact Iginla played on the left wing, something he did not do during his career, and the limited time he spent with Sidney Crosby. They are both valid concerns. I don’t disagree those were weird choices, but I’m not sure it automatically makes Iginla’s tenure as a Penguin underwhelming or a disappointment.
First, the trade itself. A 2013 first round pick, Ken Agostino, and Ben Hanowski for Jarome Iginla. This was a win for the Penguins. We have two college players who never made significant contributions in the NHL and a first round pick that was 28th overall. The Penguins didn’t wait too long to make a selection, though. They traded up to the 44th pick and ultimately selected Tristan Jarry. Jarry is just now making an impact this season. The trade for Iginla was a clear win for the Penguins. It did not compromise their short or long term potential.
The 2012-13 season was unique. It was the lockout shortened season with only 48 games. Players who were traded at the deadline had even less time to get acclimated to their new teams. Making matters worse for the Iginla/Crosby potential was the fact Iginla was traded to the Penguins on March 27th and on March 30th Brooks Orpik shot a puck in Sidney Crosby’s face and broke his jaw costing him a Hart Trophy and an Art Ross. By the time Crosby came back into the lineup it was already the second game of the first round against the Islanders. The Kunitz-Crosby-Dupuis line was a known commodity (a very good one) and I understand the desire to stick with what you know even though the hockey world wanted Crosby and Iginla to play together. If you recall Iginla had the primary assist on Sidney Crosby’s legendary Golden Goal in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.
The Crosby thing never happened with regularity. The Penguins also didn’t have Jordan Staal anymore. They had Brandon Sutter. Putting Iginla with Sutter would have been laughable. Instead, the Penguins put him on the left wing with Evgeni Malkin and James Neal. Neal was a known commodity on the right side so Bylsma rolled the dice with Iginla on the left side despite how absurd it looked on the surface. This was where Iginla spent most of his time in the regular season and post season. People may not have liked it, but it isn’t like it didn’t work.
Iginla lived up to his billing. He was acquired to provide an offensive boost and he did just that. He had 11 points in 13 regular season games and had 12 points in 15 playoff games. His CF% in the playoffs wasn’t great, but it is offset by the 2.21 points per 60 at 5v5.
The power play was something people were most excited about. The Penguins were always missing a huge right shot on the left side of the power play ever since Mario Lemieux retired. Iginla’s one-timer was one of his best assets. His presence on the power play was a success. In the regular season he had a points per 60 of 6.91 on the power play. Only Evgeni Malkin (7.75) had a better rate among players who played 50 minutes with the man advantage. In the playoffs Jarome Iginla led all Penguins with a 7.59 points per 60 among Penguins who played at least ten minutes on the power play. Tough to argue with those numbers.
Getting Iginla also prevented the Bruins from acquiring him which was a good thing even with the knowledge of the Eastern Conference Finals result. The Bruins signed Iginla in the upcoming UFA period and he went on to have 30 goals and 31 assist in 2013-14. It is likely Iginla would have lit it up for Boston in the 2013 playoffs if he landed there.
Ultimately, the Penguins and Jarome Iginla were a success even if things didn’t look the way people thought they would. The Penguins got good value for a quality player which is something that couldn’t be said for some of the other trade deadline acquisitions. People don’t remember his time with the Penguins as fondly as maybe they should and it has a lot to do with the Eastern Conference Finals sweep. The reactions to the sweep were overblown. Tuukka Rask had a 5v5 save percentage of .977 in the ECF and HAD AN ALL-SITUATIONS SAVE PERCENTAGE OF .985! They got Rask’d. The Penguins were still a good team. The Iginla trade was still a good idea. Jarome Iginla’s tenure with the Penguins was a success.
Congrats to Jarome Iginla on being the latest Penguin inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Thanks for reading!
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