Utah Hockey Club selects Tij Iginla – Deseret News

The Utah Hockey Club’s first-ever NHL draft candidate can look back on a great success story.

On Friday night, UHC selected Canadian Tij Iginla sixth overall in the 2024 draft. If that last name sounds familiar, it’s because Iginla’s father, Jarome, played in the NHL for 22 years and is now in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Jarome Iginla was drafted 11th overall by the Dallas Stars in 1995 and subsequently traded to the Calgary Flames, the team where he made his NHL debut in 1996.

The elder Iginla played with the Flames until 2013 before being traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins. He moved between NHL teams for the rest of his career, also playing for the Boston Bruins, Colorado Avalanche and Los Angeles Kings before retiring in 2018.

Jarome Iginla finished his career as a six-time All-Star and is one of only seven players in NHL history to score at least 30 goals in 11 consecutive seasons.

On an international level, Iginla has a connection to Utah, having helped lead Canada to its first hockey gold medal in 50 years at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City (he won two gold medals in total in his career).

In 2020, Iginla was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Despite all of his father’s success, Tij Iginla surpassed him immediately after being selected on Friday. He was selected sixth, five spots higher than his father was selected 29 years earlier.

Together, the Iginlas are the sixth father-son duo in history to be selected among the first 15 picks of the NHL Draft.