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Jarome Iginla is headed to Colorado.
After a tremendous season in Boston in which he tied for the lead in goals for the team with 30 -- the most of any free agent -- he couldn't work out a deal with the cap-strapped Bruins and hit free agency. After a bidding battle between a few teams, Iginla surprised some and inked with the Avalanche.
His new deal in Colorado is for three seasons and a reported $16 million, or $5.33 million per season.
Iginla was reportedly looking for three years and clearly the Avs were willing to give him that to land his services. The question is if he'll be as good of a fit in Colorado as he was in Boston, he does have some nice talent around him, though the Avs did lose one of their top player in Paul Stastny to St. Louis.
Iginla, who turned 37 on Tuesday, hasn't had fewer than 30 goals in any season (sans the lockout-shortened 2013) since 1999-2000 when he finished with 29 goals.
A sure-fire Hall-of-Famer one day, Iginla will look to bring some scoring punch and just as important, some veteran leadership to an Avalanche team that wants to show last season wasn't a fluke. That will be Iginla's mission, too, as he doesn't have the speed he once did and many people have credited a lot of his success last season to playing in Boston.
Time will tell if Colorado is as good of a fit but if nothing else Iginla has the term he was looking for in what was probably his last big contract. Not to mention he is back in the Western Conference where he'll see his old friends in Calgary a little more.
