You sound exactly like those people from other boards who were talking about Iginla during his last 2 years here. Can still score goals, one of the best or all time, etc..
Were we irrational to criticize his character and his play?
Yes. Absolutely.
Iginla's failure in Colorado is not entirely on Iginla. In fact, I'd say it's about 99% not Iginla's fault. It can't be understated how horrible Sakic and Roy handled things following that better-than-expected season in 2014. They traded for a washed-up defenseman with zero puck skills in Brad Stuart, and they lost Stastny for nothing. I don't think letting Stazz walk was the wrong move, but using the cap savings on a 38-year-old winger was. It got even worse when they also lost O'Reilly. They lost a shit-ton of near-elite defensive play in those two, and replaced it with virtually nothing. By that time Iggy had aged into a one-dimensional power play specialist. Boston, his previous team, understood this and sheltered him heavily. The Avs didn't and overplayed him to a ridiculous extent. All of the speed and most of the power and strength that defined Iginla as one of the premier talents of his generation was gone. All he had left was a good one-timer that allowed him to remain a reasonably productive player....for one season at least.
It's also on management that they still valued intangibles over actual ability, and even that completely backfired. Erik Johnson said in interviews after that disastrous 2016-17 season that having vets like Iggy and Beauchemin in there was a divisive presence--guys like him and Landeskog were afraid to speak up. That's still not on Iggy though, it was just a really bad decision by management. Iginla and Colorado were just a horrible match from the start. The Avs weren't even close to being ready as we now know, and Iginla was asked to do way too much.
Yes, I know he was quoted as saying that the Avs rebuild wasn't what he signed up for, but I don't see what's wrong with that quote. He didn't sign up for that and the Avs certainly wouldn't have brought him in for those purposes. It's not Iggy's fault the Avs were an abhorrent team that got even further decimated by injuries. That's on management for making a series of terrible decisions based off one fluke run in 2013-14. Even if Iggy really did carry himself like a jerk in that locker room, that is still 100% the fault of management for signing him in the first place. Luckily Sakic learned that lesson and has put a premium on getting defensively capable forwards ever since (Nieto, Calvert, Bellemare, O'Connor, Nichushkin, etc.).
If there's one veteran presence guy I have some disdain for following that season, it's Beauchemin. But even then, the Avs had such a bad defensive corps that at least two guys who played major roles that season (Tyutin and Wiercioch) never saw the NHL again. That's not his fault that he was also overplayed and as a result, exposed terribly on a horrible team. But I still hate seeing pics of him in burgundy, I even called out an Avs fan Twitter account for posting a GIF of him recently.
Fans are allowed to have feelings. I still admit I bristle anytime I hear the names Matt Lepsis and Rahim Moore. Neither was a bad player but both were involved with catastrophic events in Broncos history and as a result, I don't really like those guys. But I freely admit that's a totally irrational reaction. But to imply that mob rule somehow leads to logical conclusions is patently absurd. Fans by their very nature ignore logic, that's what fandom mostly is. I'm not saying they ALWAYS get it wrong, but they get it wrong a lot. They're fans, not calm, rational analysts. We're allowed to have takes that are wrong, and we're allowed to change our minds, but Kings fans dissing Kopitar are just sad their team still sucks balls and have picked a convenient target.