Utah Hockey Club’s first-ever NHL draft selection has a big-time pedigree.
On Friday night, UHC selected Canadian Tij Iginla with the sixth overall pick 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 in 1995 by the Dallas Stars and then traded to the Calgary Flames, the team he made his NHL debut with in 1996.
The elder Iginla was with the Flames all the way until 2013, when he was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins. He bounced around the NHL 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 having been named an All-Star six times and is one of just seven players in NHL history to score at least 30 goals in 11 straight seasons.
In international play, Iginla has a connection to Utah, as he helped lead Canada to its first hockey gold medal in 50 years at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City (he won two gold medals in all in his career).
In 2020, Iginla was entered into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Despite all of his father’s accomplishments, Tij Iginla one upped him immediately upon being selected Friday. Chosen with the sixth pick, he was taken five spots higher than his dad was 29 years earlier.
Together, the Iginlas become the sixth father-son duo in history to be selected within the first 15 picks of the NHL draft.