Jarome Iginla was Boston-bound last night after the Calgary Flames came to terms with the Bruins to deal their longtime captain.
But then something happened that stopped the trade in its tracks — Iginla said no .
The Bruins were ready to send defenseman Matt Martkowski, prospect Alexander Khokhlachev, and a first-round draft pick to the Flames in exchange for Iginla but instead were left with nothing after Iginla vetoed the deal and chose to go to the Pittsburgh Penguins instead.
The late reversal left the Bruins stunned.
“We were told around noon yesterday that we had the player, we won the sweepstakes so to speak,” said Bruins general manager general manager Peter Chiarelli. “[Flames GM Jay Feaster] just had to talk to Jarome and his agent regarding the logistics of everything. So from that point on there had been some discussions regarding Jarome taking some time, not to decide, just to let things soak in. And then we had our game. Prior to that we made moves, as did they. They scratched Jarome, we made moves, scratching [Bartkowski] and [Khokhlachev]. …
“We relied on the fact we had a deal. Now, these things happen all the time, more than you know, about deals going south for whatever reason. We believe we had a deal. We operated on the premise of the deal.”
Chiarelli said he got a phone call close to midnight from the Flames saying that Iginla had nixed the deal and chosen to go to Pittsburgh instead.
Jarome Iginla reportedly had a no-trade clause but granted an exception for three teams — the Bruins, Penguins, and Los Angeles Kings.
“It’s tough, we’re talking about a really good player,” Chiarelli said of Iginla, who has nine goals and 13 assists in 31 games this season.
The Jarome Iginla trade evolved so quickly that is had NHL reporters twisting . Aaron Ward, a studio analyst for the NHL on TSN, tweeted that Iginla to Boston was a done deal, but later deleted the tweet, saying, “Apologies, had multiple sources confirm a trade that did not happen.”