It would probably be really easy to compare Tij Iginla to his father, Hockey Hall of Famer Jarome Iginla, and call it a day, right? Thing is, Jarome has been out of the game long enough that things have change since then, but the way Tij plays the game isn’t too dissimilar to his dad.
After all, when looking at the way Tij plays with speed and a lack of fear of getting physical, it certainly shows that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. But Gregory had a couple of different comparisons for him with Florida Panthers power forward Matthew Tkachuk and Boston Bruins superstar David Pastrnak.
Iginla had 47 goals and 84 total points in 64 games with Kelowna in the WHL and that sort of goal-scoring is hard to ignore at any level.
Even though Iginla is ranked as the ninth-best North American skater by NHL Central Scouting, he’s made a steady climb up the rankings all season long which would point to him, perhaps, being a late bloomer of sorts in draft terms. In Central Scouting’s preliminary players to watch list in October, he had a “B” grade which indicates being a second or third-round pick.
“I didn’t have the best 16-year-old year compared to some of my peers, so I knew in that first September ranking I might not be quite as high as I’d like to be,” Iginla said. “But I just tried to take it kind of one month at a time, just to try and use it as fuel and believe that when the next one came out, I’d actually be a little bit higher.”
Mission accomplished because he’s likely going to be a high first-round pick, and potentially in the Top 10. If he does that, he might slot in behind where Tkachuk was picked (sixth in 2016), but he’d be far ahead of where Pastrnak was selected (25th in 2014).
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