16-year-old Iginla sets Oil Kings mark for youngest player to score hat-trick

Edmonton Oil Kings forward Joe Iginla, centre, celebrates a goal on Dec. 29, 2024, against the visiting Red Deer Rebels. (Credit: WHL)

Hat-ta boy, Iggy!

Once upon a time, reading ‘hat-trick’ and ‘Iggy’ in the same sentence would’ve naturally referred to Jarome Iginla, the St. Albert product who went on to National Hockey League fame as his generation’s preeminent power forward, scoring 625 goals over a 20-year, Hockey Hall of Fame career on the pro hockey circuit and recording 12 ‘hatties’ before retiring in 2017.

On Sunday, however, his son Joe Iginla took centre stage and recorded his first hat-trick in junior hockey, becoming the youngest Edmonton Oil Kings player to score three goals in a game in an 8-2 win over the visiting Red Deer Rebels.

“I didn’t know that,” Iginla said after the game when he was told he became the youngest Oil King to get a hat-trick, aged 16 years 139 days.

“It’s definitely cool. There’s been a lot of great players with this organization, so it surprises me.”

Iginla has scored seven goals and two assists in 26 games so far this season, his first in the WHL.

The forward surpassed current Oil Kings captain Gavin Hodnett with the mark. Hodnett was 16 years, 223 days old when he scored a hat-trick in November 2022.

Iginla, Hodnett and current NHLer Dylan Guenther of the Utah Hockey Club are the only three players in Oil Kings history to score hat-tricks as 16-year-olds.

The Western Hockey League awarded Iginla rookie of the week honours on Monday.

Iginla’s 18-year-old brother, Tij, plays for the WHL’s Kelowna Rockets and was the sixth overall selection in June’s NHL Draft by the Utah Hockey Club. His sister Jade, 20, plays NCAA hockey at Brown University and has played internationally for Canada, winning gold at the 2022 World U18 Championship.