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It’s never too early to fire up the “Should Calgary Trade Iginla?” debate

Jarome Iginla

Calgary Flames captain Jarome Iginla speaks to reporters at the Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta, Monday, April 11, 2011. The Flames did not advance to the NHL hockey playoffs. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jeff McIntosh

AP

At 4-5-1, the Calgary Flames have started yet another season in mediocre fashion. (Stop us if you’ve heard this before.) They’re not terrible, but they’re not great. They won’t lose to the bad teams, but won’t beat the good ones.

Nowhere was this more evident than last night at the Saddledome, where the defending Western Conference champion Vancouver Canucks came in and whipped the Flames 5-1 -- a loss that got Sportsnet columnist Mark Spector thinking about the future of Jarome Iginla.

“Calgary is in 14th place in the West, which isn’t a big deal this early in the season,” Spector writes. “But they are a slow-footed team in an ever-quickening league. If [GM Jay] Feaster is going to hang on to Iginla, Kiprusoff, Giordano, plus his draft picks and decent prospects, we challenge you to look down Calgary’s roster for names that could return valuable pieces to Feaster’s project.”

The what-to-do-with-Jarome discussion is now an annual rite of passage in Calgary. The Flames haven’t made the playoffs since 2009 and some believe that without a full-scale rebuild (which almost certainly involves trading Iginla), they won’t be back anytime soon.

But having the conversation 10 games into the season? Even by Calgarian standards, that’s pretty early.

Not that it’s without reason. Feaster’s coming up on the one-year anniversary of taking Calgary’s GM gig. When people look back at his first year on the job, they’ll see a guy whose biggest additions to a non-playoff team were Chris Butler and Scott Hannan. In short, someone that’s not about making big changes.

Which bring us to Spector’s big point -- at age 34, the last thing Iginla needs is a stubborn GM. If Feaster gets bull-headed (or, even more bull-headed) about retaining his veteran core, Iggy could miss out on a variety of opportunities: Moving to a contender, playing in a big market, linking up with one of his many former Team Canada teammates. Not that he’s explicitly expressed a desire to do so -- you’d just think he’d like to have the option made available (before he’s too old to capitalize on it).

Last year, the Iginla-to-L.A. rumors were all over the place. This year, you’d have to think at least a couple of other suitors are in the mix.