Is Jarome Iginla coming back to Boston?

It’s the offseason, and rumors are fun.

Today, we’ve got a weird one from the Boston Business Journal:

The 39-year-old future of Hall of Famer has apparently paid $4.5 million for a newly-constructed home in Brookline's Chestnut Hill neighborhood, according to a Norfolk County deed.

Well that’s weird.

A look in the files of the Norfolk County Register of Deeds shows that a deal was made two weeks ago today for the aforementioned property (or, more specifically, the land and “improvements” made on it):

You’ll notice in there that surveying and other things were done back in 2014, which is when Jarome Iginla was a member of the Bruins.

It’s entirely possible, then, that this deal has been in the works for quite some time. In fact, the BBJ reported that the house is new construction, and it’d make sense that a house of this size would take that long to finish.

Iginla finished up this season in Los Angeles, where the Kings failed to make the playoffs. At the end of the season, he told the LA Times that he wasn’t ready to retire, and would consider returning to the Kings.

He’s an unrestricted free agent, purchasing a house in the Boston area...so is he coming back to the Bruins?

Probably not.

It’s a move that really wouldn’t make a ton of sense. The Bruins aren’t exactly flush with cap room, aren’t exactly knocking on the door of Lord Stanley’s house and aren’t really in the market for a rental.

Iginla, if he’s going to play, probably will want to go to a team that has a real shot at winning next year.

It’s entirely possible that the Bruins have floated the idea, but you don’t exactly plop down a few million on a house because a team has said “hey, maybe come back.”

Also, I’m not an expert on the CBA, but I think that would be tampering.

Chances are there are other forces at play here.

• Maybe Boston made an impression on Iginla when he was here, and he wanted a piece of property to call his own.
• Maybe he made such an impression on the organization that they told him there’d be a hockey job waiting for him when he retired, and he bought the house pre-emptively.
• Iginla has kids, but they’re all too young to be in the area for college. It’s possible that the house was purchased as an investment in case his sons or daughter plays hockey at BU or BC.

Maybe Iginla just wanted to mess with us.

IT’S A MYSTERY.

What’s your Iginla theory?