Color of Hockey: Iginla's children adding to family's legacy in game

William Douglas has been writing The Color of Hockey blog since 2012. Douglas joined NHL.com in 2019 and writes about people of color in the sport. Today, as part of NHL.com's celebration of Black History Month, he profiles Jade, Tij and Joe Iginla, the daughter and sons of Hockey Hall of Famer Jarome Iginla who are forging their own successful hockey careers.

Jarome Iginla said he didn’t build an outdoor rink at his family’s home for the first time in nearly 10 years because he wasn’t sure who would have time to use it.

Daughter Jade Iginla is a sophomore at Brown University, where she led its NCAA Division I women’s hockey team in scoring for the second consecutive season.

Sons Tij and Joe Iginla are living at home in Kelowna, British Columbia, but they’re also busy living their hockey lives.

Tij, a 17-year-old forward, is the second-leading scorer for Kelowna of the Western Hockey League and is No. 11 on NHL Central Scouting’s midterm rankings of North American skaters eligible for the 2024 NHL Draft.

Joe, a 15-year-old forward for RINK Hockey Academy Kelowna’s Under-18 team, already has made his debut WHL debut with Edmonton and scored his first major junior goal.

“Over the years, I look back and see pictures of the outdoor rinks that we got to play (on) and battle,” Jarome Iginla said. “This is the first year we didn’t have an outdoor rink, and I was definitely a little bit sad.”

That sadness is supplanted by pride and joy as he watches his children forge their own hockey paths they hope will take them to the pros.

But it almost always goes back to the backyard rink for the Iginlas. Tij remembers the competitive games that would take place on the ice between the siblings and their famous father.

“The only real rivalry was back in the day playing against each other on the outdoor rink.” Tij said. “A little bit of 2-on-2, we’d play that quite a bit. Those games were pretty intense, everybody wanted to win. Usually, it was me and my sister going up against my brother and my dad. That’s kind of where the rivalry was. But other than that, we all like to see each other have success.”

Tij smiled when he received a congratulatory text from his father earlier this month when he surpassed him in goals scored during their draft-eligible seasons.

He’s Kelowna’s top goal scorer with 40 and is second in points (70) in 54 games. Jarome Iginla had 33 goals in 72 games during his draft-eligible season in 1994-95 with Kamloops of the WHL. He finished the season with 71 points (38 assists).

“I think we were on the road when I passed his goal number,” Tij said of his father’s text. “It was something along the lines of, ‘That’s already more than I had for the whole year.’ It was pretty cool.”

Jade Iginla said the backyard games and training with her father and brothers helped shape her into the player she has become. The 19-year-old forward was Brown's top scorer with 26 points (16 goals, 10 assists) in 29 games during the regular season, which ended Feb. 17.

Brown won its opening game in the ECAC Hockey tournament Saturday, a 1-0 victory against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

She had 23 points (17 goals, six assists) in 29 games last season and was named the ECAC Co-Rookie of the Year; the goals were the most by a Brown women's player since 2006-07 and her three short-handed goals were tied for fourth in the nation.

Like her father, who played in the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, the 2006 Torino Olympics and 2010 Vancouver Olympics and won gold medals with Canada in 2002 and 2010, Jade has represented her country; she helped Canada win a gold medal at the 2022 IIHF Under-18 Women’s World Championship in Madison, Wisconsin.

“We’re competitive, but always rooting for each other at the end of the day,” Jade said about her siblings. “It’s been lots of fun to get to train with them. I’m looking forward to training with my brothers in the summer. My dad’s going to train us. So that’s what I look forward to every year.”

Joe doesn’t have to wait that long; his father is his coach on RINK’s Under-18 team, where he has 48 points (18 goals, 30 assists) in 27 games.

He scored his first WHL goal in a 3-2 Edmonton win against Regina on Dec. 17 as an underage emergency call-up because of injuries on the team. He has five points (three goals, two assists) in five WHL games.

“My wife, Kara, was there, and we had a lot of family and friends in there at Edmonton,” Jarome Iginla said of Joe’s first goal. “I was back in Kelowna, but it was really cool to see how happy he was and just to see him having fun. He was really thrilled. That’s a huge part of the game, those moments that keep you working, keep you determined and just life memories. It’s pretty cool that we can enjoy it together.”

The Iginla siblings are learning from a 2020 Hockey Hall of Fame inductee who was the heart and soul of the Calgary Flames from 1996-2013.

He led the Flames in scoring 11 times and twice won the Rocket Richard Trophy as the top goal-scorer in the NHL (52 in 2001-02, 41 in 2003-04). He won the Art Ross Trophy as the League’s top point producer in 2001-02 (96 points; 44 assists), and is Calgary's all-time leader in goals (525), points (1,095) and games played (1,219) and second in assists (570) to Al MacInnis (609).

Iginla finished his League career with 1,300 points (625 goals, 675 assists) in 1,554 games with the Flames, Pittsburgh Penguins, Boston Bruins, Colorado Avalanche and Los Angeles Kings. He's tied for 16th in goals and is the 36th-leading point scorer in NHL history.

He said he and his wife were careful not to force-feed hockey to their children when they were growing up.

“We played baseball in the backyard, played basketball, played hockey,” he said. “For them, we always just played (hockey), watched it on TV. It was whatever they wanted. If they picked baseball or a different sport ... we tried to get them into some music or something. I’m thrilled that they like hockey, don’t get me wrong, but it was whatever they liked.”

While coaching and training his children, Iginla has told them about his experiences playing hockey growing up when he was sometimes told he would never reach the NHL because he’s Black.

Iginla told his children of the ready response to the naysayers.

“'Well, you’re not watching hockey, look at Grant Fuhr,’” Iginla told them. “'They’d say, ‘Well, he’s a goalie. Then I’d have another one, ‘Claude Vilgrain … Tony McKegney.’ I tried to follow as many Black players as I could to have an answer ... but to also know what was possible.”

His children are taking the lesson to heart. Jade serves on the board of the Black Girl Hockey Club.

The non-profit group’s mission is to inspire passion for hockey within the Black community, specifically among Black women, and to provide access to the sport through education and scholarships.

“It’s really cool,” she said. “I’m very grateful to be part of it and to see what Black Girl Hockey Club is doing to try to grow the game and to get more girls actually playing, not just watching.”

Tij said he hopes to become “someone that, potentially, kids of color playing hockey one day maybe look up to a little bit, kind of like my dad.”

Iginla said he’s looking forward to seeing where his children’s careers take them. He also dreams of rebuilding a backyard rink someday.

“I’m, like, ‘One day maybe with grandkids, maybe I’ll get to make it again,’” he said.