Jarome Iginla retires from professional hockey

After 1500 NHL games, with 5 separate teams, and with over 600 goals to his name, Ex-Bruin Jarome Iginla will be hanging his skates up for good after a spine-bending 20 seasons of NHL action.

Iginla was a Bruin only for a year, but that didn’t stop him from having yet another one of his better years as a player, scoring 30 goals, getting 31 assists, and being an absolute phenom as a member of the Krejci line with Milan Lucic.

He also happened to be one of Boston’s better men in the playoffs that year, having 7 points in 12 games.

And while it was a memorable season and we’re of course sad to see the guy go on to non-hockey related matters, we also feel pretty hard for our fellow hockey fans in Calgary, of whom got to see him develop his hall-of-fame worthy career for the best portion of it all, and seeing him as their guiding light in stormy, disappointing, and sometimes agonizing seasons. I think our friends over at Matchsticks and Gasoline said it best:

“But stats aside, Jarome Iginla WAS and IS the Calgary Flames. No player will ever be associated more with the Flames than #12. For most of us he was the link to the past and the future, settling in very comfortably as the Flames 15th captain, a post he held from 2003-2013, the longest stretch ever by a Flames player.”

So, with all that said, let’s all say a hearty farewell to Jarome Iginla, and wish him well in his retirement!