NFL great Marshawn Lynch was on hand at this year’s NHL Draft at Sphere in Las Vegas, and he even got some pointers on how to drop the gloves from the newly-drafted son of a Hockey Hall of Famer.
If you’re confused as to why Marshawn Lynch would be at the NHL Draft, it’s because he’s a minority owner of the Seattle Kraken.
Lynch’s Kraken had the No. 8 pick and they used it to select center Berkly Catton from the WHL’s Spokane Chiefs, and so he palled around with one of the team’s newest prospects.
They ran into Tij Iginla — son of Hockey Hall of Famer Jarome Iginla — who was picked two spots ahead of Catton by the Utah Hockey Club, becoming that team’s first draft pick in franchise history (no, Arizona/Winnipeg history wasn’t transferred to Utah).
Catton and Iginla — who played for the Kelowna Rockets — played against each other in the WHL, and congratulated each other for getting drafted.
Meanwhile, Lynch seemed to joke that Iginla was the enemy and jokingly pointed at his new Utah HC sweater. Then the former Seahawks star decided to square up like he and Iginla were about to throw down.
“Yo, you strong as hell…” Lynch said when the 17-year-old grabbed him by the shirt.
Iginla exploded offensively this season with 84 points in 54 games (he had only 18 points in 47 games the year before), and with that came 35 PIMs. I don’t know how many of those came by way of fighting, but I’m sure Tij can hold his own just going off how his old man played.
Jarome Iginla wasn’t shy about dropping the mitts if necessary, and he was good at it. Easily the most famous fight of his career came in 2004 during the Stanley Cup Final when Iginla — then the captain of the Calgary Flames (who attempted to trade up and draft his son) — fought Tampa Bay Lightning captain Vincent Lecavalier.
Man, that’s a classic…
Anyway, fun stuff from Marshawn Lynch and we’ll see how things pan out for both Iginla and Catton over the next couple of years as they get their pro careers underway.
