Iginla would OK trade from Flames

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What left listeners slightly slack-jawed, even more than his answer, was the eerie absence of a stunned silence at the question itself, the lack of a side-splitting belly-laugh at its utter absurdity.

As if he’d already privately considered the possibility.

“I would, definitely,” replied Jarome Iginla, when asked if he’d entertain thoughts of leaving Calgary should the Flames, for whatever reason, move to institute divorce proceedings. “We (he and wife Kara) would talk about it. If they don’t want me here, if they wanted to move in a different direction, to rebuild or believed they could do better or . . . whatever.

“I’d look at it. Absolutely. You want to play where you’re wanted and people believe in you.”

He said it without bitterness, rancour.

“I’ve been treated very well here, my family’s been treated very well here. We want to stay and be part of the solution, be part of winning, and I believe that can be. But if it came to that I wouldn’t take it personally. Like I said, the owners and the organization, Darryl (Sutter), they’ve treated me well. They’ve been fair.

“They’re looking at everything. I haven’t heard that by any means. My first meetings have been that they want me here, to be part of it and, you know, I believe that. I believe I will be back.

“At the same time I understand it’s hockey. If they feel that (trading him) would make them a better organization and if there’s a good fit for my family and I, we’d have to look at it. We’d understand that.”

Clearly uncomfortable on the topic, Iginla stopped, stammered.

“‘I’m not trying . . .” he groped for words, searching to clarify his position. “I don’t want to go down that (road) . . .

“And I’m not trying to, by any means. I want to be here.”

Interpretation, the human-nature habit of reading between the lines, at a moment this emotional, this delicate, in a season gone to seed is always a dangerous parlour game. The captain was, after all, only responding to a hypothetical stick of TNT tossed into his foxhole.

Yet, the fact that he himself didn’t consider the notion patently ridiculous is in itself telling. In past years, on other garbage-bag days, he wouldn’t have known how to respond to such a loaded query.

Wednesday, it didn’t stump him in the slightest.

“We definitely took a step back backwards this year, but that might be the one wake-up call, that jolt, that we all learn from and get better,” Iginla conceded.

“If they want me here, yeah, I do want to be here. And — I’ll say it again, not just because it’s easy or it’s comfortable. I want to win. I want to win. There’s only so many years and the years go by fast. I believe with some adjustments I think we can be a lot better than we were this year.”

He didn’t seem like a guy in search of an exit. But Iginla did sound like someone in need of more convincing assurances.

Maybe he’s waiting to see how the upper-management situation is sorted out. Or what personnel moves are in the offing.

“I can be better. I can produce more. I have. And I will. I believe this was a down year, an off-year, and I believe that I need to get better, but I believe there’s other guys in the room that can produce more, too. We’re at the bottom of the league in scoring. It’s not just a few goals here or there. We need to bring that back up.

“We’re not in the playoffs. But we do have good pieces. We’re not that far off. Look at other teams

. . . Vancouver went from missing (the playoffs) to winning the division the next couple years and I believe we can do that, too.”

Having said it, Iginla, so heavily relied upon to produce, did concede that “one or two more creative players would help the mix, give us a more potent offence.”

Amen to that.

There are many of us who’ve chronicled his exploits since he arrived as a kid prodigy wondering if he doesn’t, deep down, yearn, at 32, to be part of an honest-to-gosh contender. Often this season, he appeared jaded, short on inspiration, weary of lugging the franchise around for a dozen years.

Bereft of precocious kids and decent draft picks, the theory has been pitched that the Flames might opt to trade their most saleable commodity, thereby carrying on the Kent Nilsson begat Joe Nieuwendyk/Nieuwendyk begat Jarome Iginla/Jarome Iginla begat (fill in blank) tradition.

When informed that so many people, both up close and far away, would love nothing better than to see him one day hoist a Stanley Cup — wherever — Iginla brightened for one of the few times in a turbulent last few weeks.

“I appreciate that.

“That’s the ultimate goal at this point in my career. It’s not about scoring 40 goals or 50 goals or this many points. I want to win.

“My career has gone fast, has been very enjoyable. This has been a tougher year, no question. Looking at it before this year, I had three or four of my best producing years in a row. I think I can get back to that. I believe I will.

“I’ve got lots left.

“And I mean mentally, too.”

He won’t deny that the strain of a difficult season began to tell down the stretch.

“We lost a lot of close, 2-1 games this year. Even when we were winning those earlier, that doesn’t leave a lot of room for mistakes. It’s been a little more stressful. We’re losing those games and you’re part of the scoring line, supposed to produce, to relieve some of the pressure on guys that can score in a different role. I take that personally. I think I should.

“Even the Olympics . . . the Olympics were exciting, awesome, an amazing experience. I wouldn’t change it, but they were intense. It was an intense year.

“I’ll get a good rest,” promised Jarome Iginla, “and be ready to go.”

Where that’ll be, not even he sounded entirely sure.

It's unfortunate that the trade talks are coming up about Iggy. I think he's a great all-around player and probably the second best next to Ovechkin. Obviously I'd love to see him on the Leafs , but he's a player I want to see retire having played for only 1 team.