Iginla is Hall of Fame player, person, Giordano says

Mark Giordano was a teammate of Jarome Iginla with the Calgary Flames from 2005-06 until 2012-13, when Iginla was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins. The defenseman, now the captain of the Seattle Kraken, succeeded Iginla as Flames captain Sept. 20, 2013. Here, Giordano shares his thoughts on Iginla, who will be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame on Monday, in a special testimonial for NHL.com:

I signed with the Calgary Flames as an undrafted free agent in July of 2004, just after watching Jarome Iginla in the Stanley Cup Final when they lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning. I was a big fan of his as a teenager and when I got to that locker room, I was sort of starstruck. You're in awe when you first meet someone you've been watching for years.
My first training camp in Calgary was just amazing as a young guy. I wasn't drafted, but coming into the locker room, 'Iggy' treated everyone the same. He made a point of coming and saying hello and talking to you as a younger player.
I think a lot of guys don't realize how far that goes sometimes with a young guy who's really nervous to be in the locker room and hasn't been in that environment before. But he made a point of making it comfortable for guys like myself. And that's the first impression I have of him, just how great he treated everyone around him -- players, staff, whoever it may be.
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That's definitely something that I learned from him early and have tried to do as I've gotten older. I try to do the same things he did off the ice, helping guys feel comfortable. I think his approach had a big influence on me.
We play different positions -- Iggy's a forward, I'm a defenseman -- but I was able to take that from him, seeing how everybody respected Iggy. He had a presence when he walked in the room, but more importantly, he showed respect to everyone, treated everyone with a lot of grace. He's a great person, a great family man. So, there's a lot to look up to when you're talking about Iggy.
I played with him for a bunch of years, and the most amazing part for me was how he could go 10 games without scoring a goal, but you knew it was coming, that it was just a matter of time. Once he turned it on and got hot, he could score every game for 20 games. He can score 1-on-1 with a goalie, from far out, snap shot or wrist shot. He had an amazing shot, but he was one of those guys who was scary to face because you knew once he started to get hot, it wasn't like a goal every other game, it was literally every night he was putting the puck in the net. And he wasn't a guy you could try to intimidate or push out of the game. Once you started to try and play that way with him, be physical with him, it actually made him a lot better. He played better as the game became more physical or dirty. He was all-in with the physical stuff.
On the ice, I think a lot of people know this, but he's a super, super competitive guy. He's a guy who competes hard, as hard as anyone, day in and day out. I always call him the biggest optimist I've ever met because when things seem pretty down and out and you have a 1 percent chance of success, he'd find a way to spin it and give our team a chance.
He's obviously a Hall of Fame goal scorer and a guy who can do it offensively with the best of them. So, being a young guy, it wasn't like I was going to go out and there and think, "Oh, I'm going to be like Jarome Iginla and score all these goals," but what I did learn from him was how competitive he was and that desire, that fire, he had. That's really something that rubbed off on me.
It didn't matter what it was, he didn't like losing, including video games on the plane. I remember him and Craig Conroy having wars and getting into legit fights about a video game on the plane. Literally every aspect of life, he's very competitive, and that's something that's contagious when you're a young guy coming in and playing with him.
This is how competitive he is: When he came back to Calgary with the Colorado Avalanche, I cross-checked him. I could tell he was getting fired up, and he sort of came at me there in Calgary. I consider us pretty good friends, but it didn't matter. I cross-checked him and we had a little battle on the ice, and he was ready to fight me. He had the gloves off and thank God the linesman came in because I played with him for a long time and I know he's super tough and he throws a left hand, so it would have been a tough fight for me. So, I was happy that they stepped in. But he's such a great guy that he couldn't just leave it at that. He actually texted me after the game and said he was glad it didn't get to the point where we fought, but he was all fired up. That's just one example of how competitive he gets, and he's willing to do whatever it takes to win.
When he was traded and I was named captain in September of 2013, it was huge shoes to fill. But it actually made it easier, because the way I looked at it there was no way I'm ever going to fill the shoes of a Hall of Famer like Iggy, a guy who's done it all. I just tried to be myself but take parts of the stuff that he did off the ice and the competitiveness, but more importantly, the respect for the trainers, the respect for the staff, all that sort of stuff. Try to just carry on with the way Iggy was. But as far as filling his shoes, you knew you were never going to fill them. He was there for such a long time and has pretty much all the franchise records on the ice.
So, the pressure was off when it came to that. No one's expecting you to be Jarome Iginla. But I just tried to learn from him. He had a Hall of Fame career and, just overall, was one of the top players to play the game.