Tij Iginla looking to follow his dad Jarome as top draft pick

Ryan S. Clark, NHL reporterJun 25, 2024, 10:02 AM ET

CloseRyan S. Clark is an NHL reporter for ESPN.

Books have been written about how being the middle child often comes with not receiving the reverence that’s reserved for the oldest, or the amplified attention that’s given to the youngest.

When it comes to how he’s viewed in hockey, reverence and attention have become extremely familiar themes for Tij Iginla. Especially upon the realization that while there are hockey families, his family might be unlike any that hockey has ever encountered.

His father, Jarome, is a Hockey Hall of Famer. His oldest sibling, Jade, is the star of Brown University women’s hockey program, which she has led in scoring for the past two seasons. His youngest sibling, Joe, was a first-round pick by the WHL’s Edmonton Oil Kings and had five points in five games this season as a 15-year-old, creating the expectation that he could be the next of his name to have a bright future.

As for the middle Iginla child? There’s a chance Tij, the Kelowna Rockets winger could be the next first-round pick in the family, and potentially get drafted even higher than his father, who was the 11th pick of the 1995 NHL Draft.

“That’d be kinda funny and pretty cool to go ahead of him,” Tij Iginla said. “The top 10 itself would be a really cool achievement too. I try not to think about that stuff too much. But yeah, that’d be pretty cool to have the bragging rights for that.”

Numerous mock drafts have Iginla going in the top 10. The fact he’s even in the discussion of being a potential top-10 pick is exactly why the Rockets traded a first-round pick, a second-round pick and Grady Lenton to the Seattle Thunderbirds last June in exchange for Iginla.

Following the trade, Iginla went from a 16-year-old trying to find his way in the WHL to a 17-year-old who scored 47 goals and 84 points in 64 games to get the Rockets to the WHL playoffs, where he added another nine goals and 15 points in 11 postseason contests.

Editor’s…

Source link : https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/40395600/nhl-draft-2024-tij-iginla-prospect-first-round-pick-jarome-iginla

Author : Ryan S. Clark

Publish date : 2024-06-25 15:38:48

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