Bottom line with Iginla is that Shero made a mistake by trading for him, hes washed up.
I couldn't be happier to see Iginla end up in Boston, last year in the playoffs Krejci Lucic Horton carried Boston offensively, that wouldn't happen this year with Iginla on that line.
You simply won't believe the amount of ridicule I received around here before the trade actually happened for suggesting that Iggy was no longer the player many remembered from years past.
Thing is, he is one of my favorite non Penguin players and always has been. And that being the case you would think that I'd have been THRILLED that we were after him.
But I watched him. A lot. And I saw a noticeable difference in his skating. And his compete level (which actually dropped off a couple of years ago). His passion and drive. His lack of any semblance of the physical play which made him so bad ass. His shot was still there, but that's about all that remained of the once great power forward other than intangibles.
I felt he would be a bad bad fit on the Pens. I felt he would be a bad fit with Sid. And geez, was I a major idiot for pointing all of this out (I accept gifts as apologies...also my dear friends, who turned their back on me for Iginla...I forgive. But need bribes to forget ya bunch of traiters).
The thing is this. If I saw all of these things and I knew it was a bad fit, why on earth didn't our management??? And I'm sorry, the reasoning behind the trade, "If you have a chance to get Iginla, you go and get Iginla" is just pure crap. You do NOT go out and use valuable assets to get a player whom is deemed a poor fit for your club simply to do so. It was terrible asset management then and it remains terrible.
In fact this is also the whole reason I started to question Shero. The series of trades he made at the deadline last year were all wrong fits and he gave up far to much to get the wrong pieces simply based on reputation alone. Shero got had by GM's who remind me of a used car salesman getting over full price for a lemon that he couldn't sale for years.
A first and two prospects for a slow and washed up Iggy. The price based on reputation alone despite having not played like that in some time.
A top prospect in Joe Morrow for an even more washed up Brendan Morrow. At least Brendan still played with fire and compete but was so slow that he simply didn't fit in.
And TWO second rounders for a guy who couldn't even lock up a lasting roster spot on another team? A team that didn't even attempt to resign him? A guy who quite possibly is one of the three slowest players in the NHL?
What do they all have in common? Toughness and character (and are slow).
Which is great... BUT, our entire system is built on speed. And you put three slower players in prime positions and it helped torpedo the affectiveness of that speed. And with the assets we gave up do you mean to tell me that we couldn't have traded for toughness and character who actually fit our system?
Just ZERO rhyme, reason or plan in those acquisitions other than name recognition to appease the fans. Poor asset management by our shrewed GM. Poor game plan (or lack thereof) by our shrewed GM. And definitely not the right pieces to win the cup. And if he scouted these players he already knew that they would be a bad bad fit.
This leads me to ask the question of why it was done then? For entertainment purposes? To make a splash amongst the fans? It made no sense then and is pissing me off writing this even more.
Lame.
For the record I thought the Juice trade was another Shero swoop of genious. Loved that one!
