Jarome Iginla’s time with the Colorado Avalanche has come to an end, and it is resulting in a reunion with one of his former coaches, Darryl Sutter.
The Los Angeles Kings acquired Iginla in a trade with the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday in exchange for a conditional 2018 fourth-round draft pick. According to TSN’s Darren Dreger the conditions on the pick are related to the Kings making the playoffs or Iginla re-signing with the Kings. If none of the conditions are met, the pick disappears and Colorado gets nothing.
The Avalanche will also be retaining half of Iginla’s remaining salary for this season.
The 39-year-old Iginla is in the final year of a three-year contract with the Avalanche and had expressed a desire to be moved before the deadline to go to a contender in his continued quest to win a Stanley Cup.
At this point, though, the Kings are on the outside of the Western Conference playoff picture, sitting one behind the St. Louis Blues for the second wild card spot. They just added goaltender Ben Bishop over the weekend but are still desperate to add some sort of offense to a team that is in the bottom-five of the league in goals for the season and has scored just 24 goals in their past 12 games.
Whether or not Iginla, who only has eight goals and 10 assists in 61 games this season, will be enough to help remedy that problem remains to be seen.
The obvious intrigue here is the reunion between Iginla and Sutter. The two spent two-and-a-half years together in Calgary between the 2003 and 2006, including the 2003-04 season when they reached Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.
Along with acquiring Iginla, the Kings are also reportedly shopping veteran forward Marian Gaborik, in a move that could be used to clear cap space if they can find a taker for him.
They also traded Dwight King to the Montreal Canadiens earlier in the day for a 2018 draft pick.