What Would Iginla Have Meant to Dallas Stars?

The Stars traded young Jarome Iginla five months after making him the No. 11 pick in the 1995 draft, which helped bring the 1999 Stanley Cup to 777 Sports Street. Iginla – who will face the Stars again on Friday night in Calgary – has proved to be as good as his draft pedigree if not better, developing into one of the NHL’s superstars at age 32. (The Hockey News dropped him to No. 11 in their annual player rankings following an “off” season of 35 goals and 89 points.)

Getting Joe Nieuwendyk was obviously one of the keys in the Stars’ drive to the 1999 Stanley Cup. (Dallas, unlike Calgary, was willing to pay him $11 million over five years.) For all of Iginla’s production, his Flames have made it to only one Finals (losing in seven to Tampa Bay in 2004). And he hasn’t embarrassed his old organization in head-to-head play – only nine goals in 45 career games, his lowest output against any opponent. (Quickie quiz: what active player has the most points compiled against the Stars?)

The son a Nigerian father and white American mother, Iginla has become the first black player to captain an NHL team, the first to lead the league in goals. He has finished second in the MVP selection. He doesn’t need an enforcer, plays hard, too hard for Oilers coach Pat Quinn on Thursday night.

No one in Dallas has ever wanted a do-over on the trade. Last March, noted DMN hockey scribe Mike Heika speculated on what the Stars’ on-ice future might have looke like if the trade wasn’t made. But what might Iginla have meant to the Stars off the ice had he played his NHL career in Dallas?

Canadian hockey fans have already put together their dream forward line for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, which they saw previewed at the pre-season workout camp: Sidney Crosby centering for Rick Nash on the left and Iginla on the right. Iginla already has one gold medal and could be among the individual standouts when he makes his third Olympic appearance next winter.

His full name is (this will take a minute) Jarome Arthur-Leigh Adekunle Tig Junior Elvis Iginla. His parents divorced when he was 2, and he was reared by his mother in Edmonton. Iginla has gone on to become the face of the Calgary franchise, the club’s all-time leader in games and goals.

What would it have meant to the Stars to have a superstar black player? Would his presence have helped grow the game in the black community? Would we see more black fans in the seats at AAC?

I’m not advocating the Stars or any other team market a player to a specific ethnic group. They haven’t done that with Trevor Daley, among their front-line defensemen in recent years. I suspect that hasn’t been done around the league with the likes of Anson Carter, Mike Grier or tough guy Georges Laraque. (Marketing fighting, that’s another topic.)

There’s no precedent for a black NHL superstar in an American market. A few years back, the NHL hoped getting rap stars to wear vintage hockey jerseys would increase the league’s popularity among black fans. There’s less than one black player per team. Would it increase black attendance in Atlanta, Nashville, Carolina to have more black players, a black star? Winning is supposed to fill seats no matter who wears the jersey. But the Rangers were in or near first place for months, and the greatest effect on attendance seemed to come from fireworks and dollar dogs.

When Iginla was growing up in Edmonton, he was also a terrific baseball player and wanted to be a two-sport star like Bo Jackson. When he started playing hockey, he played in goal because of Edmonton’s black goalie, Grant Fuhr - now in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Role models seemed to mean something to him.