It’s fun concept for Calgary Flames fans to imagine — an in-his-prime Jarome Iginla sharing the ice with the late Johnny Gaudreau and his close friend Matthew Tkachuk.
You can picture Iggy with his stick already raised for that rocket one-timer, waiting for Johnny Hockey to dipsy-doodle around a defender and sauce over a perfect pass. Chucky, of course, would be battling at the edge of the blue paint, ready for any rebound.
That’s the first forward line for the Flames Quarter-Century Team. (Yeah, they’re all wingers. But when you’re daydreaming, you don’t worry about who will take the faceoffs.)
The NHL continued its run of reveals Saturday by announcing the Flames’ all-star squads for the stretch from 2000-2024.
The league tapped a panel of local reporters, executives and retired players to cast votes. In a Postmedia poll, our readers had the same dozen names — six forwards, four defencemen and a pair of puck-stoppers — on the final roster.
The lineup includes two members of the current cast in captain Mikael Backlund and his blue-line buddy Rasmus Andersson.
“It’s an honour,” Backlund said prior to Saturday’s clash against the Los Angeles Kings. “There’s some really good names beside mine there, so I’m really proud to be part of that group. There has been a lot of good players come to Calgary and been playing in this century, so it feels real special to be part of that group, for sure.”
Meet the Flames Quarter-Century Team …
FIRST TEAM
Forwards — Johnny Gaudreau, Jarome Iginla and Matthew Tkachuk
The longtime captain and net-filling fan favourite in Calgary, Iginla shredded the franchise record books through the 2000s. It’ll be a long, long while before anybody is in position to challenge his status as the Flames’ all-time leader in goals and points. Gaudreau will be best remembered for dangles and dishes, although he burned plenty of netminders by picking the top shelf on the short-side. Equal parts skilled and snarky, Tkachuk almost singlehandedly returned the spice to the Battle of Alberta.
Defence — Mark Giordano and Robyn Regehr
These two dudes totalled 1,749 appearances in Calgary’s colours — 949 for Gio, 800 for Reggie — and were teammates for parts of six seasons. Giordano racked up twice as many points as any other Flames rearguard between 2000-24, while Regehr was rough and rugged and seemingly determined to convince Oilers forward Ales Hemsky to reconsider his career choice. Both wore letters for a big chunk of their time in Cowtown.
Goaltender — Miikka Kiprusoff
Kiprusoff’s arrival was a total game-changer for the franchise. He was, for a stretch, the best goaltender in the world. Kipper backstopped the Flames to within a whisker of a Stanley Cup title in 2004, earned the Vezina Trophy in 2006 and wrapped his stint at the Saddledome with 305 wins and 41 shutouts.
SECOND TEAM
Forwards — Mikael Backlund, Craig Conroy, Sean Monahan
Monahan sits second on the Flames’ twine-tickling charts for the past quarter-century, trailing only Iginla on that list. Impressively, nearly a quarter of Monahan’s markers — 47 of 212 — were game-winners. These other two names have been oftentimes mentioned in Selke Trophy conversations. Backlund just finished hanging a silver stick on his wall after hitting the 1,000-game mark in the fall. Conroy likes to remind that nobody assisted on more of Iggy’s goals than he did. For his next set-up, he is working to build a championship-calibre team as general manager.
Defence — Rasmus Andersson and Dion Phaneuf
An Andersson-Phaneuf pairing would mean an earful for opponents at every whistle. These in-your-face blue-liners have a lot in common — big personalities, big slap-shots, both adored by the home crowd and despised in rival cities. Dion produced 0.60 points per game during his stay at the Saddledome, the highest average by a Flames’ defenceman in the 2000s. The best measure of Andersson’s impact is that the stalwart Swede is leading the team in minutes played for a fourth straight winter.
Goaltender — Jacob Markstrom
With Kipper’s workhorse ways, we’re not sure the backup would be very busy on this imaginary team — and Markstrom is no second-stringer. He owned the crease in Calgary for a span of four seasons. That includes 2021-22, when the Flames piled up the second-highest point total in franchise lore.