Jaromir Jagr

At 52 years old, Jaromir Jagr has this physical status:

Jaromír Jágr (born 15 February 1972) is a Czech professional ice hockey right winger for HC Kladno of the Czech Extraliga (ELH).

He has previously played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Pittsburgh Penguins, Washington Capitals, New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers, Dallas Stars, Boston Bruins, New Jersey Devils, Florida Panthers and Calgary Flames, serving as captain of the Penguins and the Rangers.

After leaving the Rangers in 2008, he played three seasons in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) with Avangard Omsk.

He returned to the NHL in 2011 with the Flyers and remained in the league for seven more years before being assigned by the Flames in 2018 to HC Kladno, which he owns. Jágr has the second-most points in NHL history, after Wayne Gretzky.

He is the most productive European player who has ever played in the NHL and is considered one of the greatest professional hockey players of all time.

In 1990, at age 18, he was the youngest player in the NHL.

Until his transfer, at age 45, he was the oldest player in the NHL, and is the oldest player to record a hat-trick.

In 2017, Jágr was named one of the 100 Greatest NHL Players in history.Jágr was the fifth overall selection in the 1990 NHL Entry Draft.

He won consecutive Stanley Cups in the 1991 and 1992 seasons with the Penguins.

Individually, he has won the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL scoring champion five times (four times in a row), the Lester B. Pearson Award for the NHL's outstanding player as voted by the NHL Players' Association (NHLPA) three times and the Hart Memorial Trophy as the league's most valuable player once, while finishing second four times. Jágr is a member of the Triple Gold Club, individuals who have played for teams that have won the Stanley Cup (1991, 1992), the Ice Hockey World Championships (2005, 2010) and the Olympic gold medal in ice hockey (1998).

Jágr is one of only two Czech players (the other being Jirí Šlégr) in the Club, achieving this feat in 2005.

Jágr was the Czech Republic's flag bearer at the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Jágr is also one of only three players from 1981 to 2001 to win the Art Ross Trophy as the leading point-scorer during the regular season; the others are Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux.

Jágr has won the award more times than any other non-Canadian player.

He is a member of Czech Ice Hockey Hall of Fame.

Personal life

Jágr resides in the Czech Republic during the off-season. His father, also named Jaromír Jágr, owns a chain of hotels and serves as president of HC Kladno. Jágr wears the number 68, which he has worn through his entire career, in honour of the Prague Spring that occurred in Czechoslovakia in 1968 and his grandfather, who died while in prison that same year, and had earlier been imprisoned for opposing the collectivization of his farm in the post-war Communist takeover of Czechoslovakia. In any interviews when asked about his number, Jágr explains that he wears it not due to bad relations with Russian people, but rather due to disaffection with Communism. During his time with the New Jersey Devils, Jágr was granted special exception to keep wearing number 68, as then-general manager Lou Lamoriello had a policy in place which generally forbade players from wearing any number higher than 35. Jágr names former United States President Ronald Reagan as his hero for his work towards ending communism in Europe.

Jágr has been a long-time supporter of the liberal conservative Civic Democratic Party (ODS), stating in 2004 that he "had always" voted for the party. In the previous election, he appeared on the party's billboards and was among its sponsors. On 26 May 2010, Jágr announced that he was backing the Civic Democrats and its leader Petr Nečas. At the press conference, he said, "I realize that there will be elections in two to three days. I would like their outcome to be good." He also urged the party not to forget about sports when distributing money. "We all know what would happen if the young did not practice any sport. If children practice some sport, they do not have time for other things such as alcohol."

Jágr is an Orthodox Christian; he was baptized in 2001 by Prague's metropolitan. He began to speak more publicly about his faith during his three-year stint in Russia, a historically Orthodox nation.

Jágr's longevity in the NHL has spawned a fan club known as "The Traveling Jagrs", a group of hockey fans from the Alberta cities of Calgary and Camrose who share interest in the player. The group dresses in the sweater, hockey socks and pant shells of 11 of Jágr's teams (his nine NHL teams, the NHL All-Star team and the Czech national team) plus long black wigs in reference to Jágr's traditional hair-style. Usually, the club would travel once or twice a year to see him play in person, but after Jágr signed with the Flames, they announced that they would be a more regular fixture at games.

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Playing career

Jágr began skating at age three, and he demonstrated exceptional talent straight away. He was playing in Poldi SONP Kladno at the age of 15, and when he was 17, he became the youngest member of the Czechoslovakia national team.

In protest of the Soviet Union's policies, he retained a snapshot of American president Ronald Reagan in his school gradebook as a youth.

Jágr was the first Czechoslovak player to be drafted by the NHL without first having to transfer to the West; his selection in the NHL draft came as the Iron Curtain fell. Because of this, Jágr, the Pittsburgh Penguins' fifth overall pick in the 1990 NHL Entry Draft, was able to move to North America from Czechoslovakia. He was the first Czechoslovak player to be present at the NHL draft with his government's blessing when he appeared at the draft in Vancouver.

In 1991 and 1992, Jágr was a supporting player with the powerhouse Penguins, who won back-to-back Stanley Cups. He was one of the youngest players in NHL history to score a goal in the Stanley Cup Finals at age 20, and was one of the youngest players in the NHL history.

On Pittsburgh radio station WDVE in his broken, thickly accented English, Jágr could be seen reading the daily weather forecast before he had a firm grasp of the English language. The "Czechmates" — a play on the word "checkmate" from chess — were promoted to him and his colleague (and fellow countryman) Ji Hrdina. In an attempt to expand his English vocabulary, he will also play Scrabble. Any Penguins fans noticed that the letters in his first name could be scrambled to form the anagram "Mario Jr.", a reference to teammate Mario Lemieux.

Jágr won his first Art Ross Trophy in 1994-95 after finishing the regular season with the most points in the NHL; he tied Eric Lindros with 70 points but lost based on his 32 goals to Lindros' 29. Jágr set a new personal record for most points, 149, in the first year. Both his 62 goals and 87 assists from last season remain career-highs. His 1995–96 totals for assists and points stand as the best-wingers in those categories. Ron Francis, the Penguins' captain, joined the Carolina Hurricanes after the 1997–98 season, leaving Jágr the Penguins' captaincy. Jágr would win four straight NHL scoring titles from 1997–98 to 2000–01. In 1999, he would win the Hart Memorial Trophy as the NHL's Most Valuable Player, as well as the Lester B. Pearson Award. He helped the Czech Republic win a gold medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics in 1998.

Jágr scored three goals and four assists against the New York Islanders on December 30, 1999, a career-high seven-point night. He would later replicate his feat by scoring three goals and four assists in a game against the Florida Panthers as a member of the Washington Capitals on January 11, 2003.

In 2000–01, Jágr was struggling to find his scoring touch and was subjected to scathing comments about his Penguins head coach Ivan Hlinka. With Mario Lemieux's return from retirement, the Penguins had two superstars, but tensions between them arose; Jágr retained the captaincy, but many fans regard Lemieux as the team's talisman. In addition, the struggling, medium-market Penguins may have to worry about Lemieux's high salary. So, the company sold him, as well as Franti Ku era, to the Washington Capitals in exchange for Kris Beech, Michal Sivek and Ross Lupaschuk.

Jágr was only the second player (after Lemieux) to score 1,000 points as a Penguin in 806 games. Having since been defeated by Sidney Crosby in career goals and third in games played, assists, and points, Jágr sits second behind Lemieux in second place in franchise history and third in games played, assists, and points, having since been surpassed by Lemieux.

The Capitals decided Jágr to the then-largest contract in NHL history over seven years, an average annual value of $11 million, with an option for an eighth year. However, Jágr disappointed in Washington, as the Capitals failed to defend their division title and fell short of the 2002 Stanley Cup playoffs. Jágr failed to finish among the NHL's top scorers, assist his team in qualifying for the Stanley Cup playoffs, or make the NHL All-Star team for the first time during his time with the Capitals. With former coworker Robert Lang, the Capitals reunited Jágr during the summer of 2002. Washington finished sixth overall in the Eastern Conference in 2002-03, but lost in the first round of the 2003 playoffs to the Tampa Bay Lightning, who had just defeated the series's first two games.

The Capitals' inability compelled them to downsale much of their high-priced employees in order to save money—not just a cost-cutting spree, but also an acknowledgment that their effort to recruit a candidate with high-priced veteran talent had failed. As a year before the signing of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) was set to be signed, dissatisfied, Washington ownership spent much of 2003 trying to trade Jágr, but few teams were able to risk $11 million on Jágr.

In exchange for Anson Carter and an agreement that Washington would pay around $4 million per year of Jágr's salary, Jágr was eventually traded to the New York Rangers on January 23, 2004. To encourage the career to continue, Jágr also decided to delay (with intention) $1 million per year for the remainder of his deal.

Jágr's salary was reduced to $7.8 million, the highest allowed under the terms of the new salary cap, because the new CBA was signed before the 2005–06 season.

He had played for HC Kladno in the Czech Republic and then for Avangard Omsk in the Russian Superleague, before the 2004-2005 NHL conflict (RSL).

Jágr led the Czech Republic to gold at the 2005 World Hockey Championships in Austria, where he was named a tournament all-star in the process. He also became a member of the prestigious Triple Gold Club, featuring players who have won a Stanley Cup, a World Hockey Championship, and an Olympic gold medal.

The Rangers had been out of the playoffs for seven seasons in a row dating back to the 2005–06 season. Many analysts, including long-time captain Mark Messier, choose the Rangers to be the worst team in the league, following the fire sale of the highly coveted, underachieving veterans that made up the team's roster (as well as the departure of long-serving veteran Mark Messier). Jágr disagreed and told the team that it would surprise a lot of people and make the Stanley Cup playoffs. He started strong at the start of the 2005 season and the NHL's return from the lockout. In fewer than ten games at the start of a season, he became the fourth player in NHL history to score ten or more goals in less than ten games. His return to dominance helped the Rangers return to the Stanley Cup playoffs, but the New Jersey Devils' injuries to Jágr and others resulted in a four-game sweep in the first round.

On March 2, 2006, Jágr scored his 1,400th point on a power-play goal against the Philadelphia Flyers, propelling him past Jari Kurri to second place all-time among European-born players. Stan Mikita later became the all-time king of Japan.

Jágr became the sixth Rangers player to break the 100-point record against the Toronto Maple Leafs on March 18, 2006, and became the first Ranger right winger to score 100 points in a season.

Jágr had a goal and an assist against the Buffalo Sabres on March 27, 2006, tying both the Rangers' single-season goal record of 52 (Adam Graves, 1993–94) and the Rangers' single-season points record of 109 (Jean Ratelle, 1971–72). Jágr passed Ratelle on March 29th, two nights later, when he assisted with Petr Prcha's first-period goal against Rick DiPietro of the New York Islanders. Jágr scored his NHL-leading 53rd goal of the season against the Boston Bruins on April 8th, snapping the Rangers' single-season goals record.

Jágr was defeated by the San Jose Sharks' team of Joe Thornton (125 points) and Jonathan Cheechoo (56 goals), losing both the Art Ross and Maurice Richard trophies in the final week of the season after leading the NHL in points and goals for the majority of the 2005–06 season. Jágr finished second in all three categories, with 123 points, 54 goals, and 24 power-play goals. He also finished third in the NHL in both assists (69) and plus-minus (+34). However, playoff triumph was not to be for Jágr, whose Rangers were swept in four games by New Jersey, as in Washington. In the third period of the series, he suffered a dislocated shoulder that prevented him from playing at his best form for the remainder of the game. Since the Rangers were kicked out of the playoffs, Jágr underwent surgery on the shoulder.

Despite being thrashed by Joe Thornton for the Art Ross Trophy and Hart Trophy (league MVP), Jágr received his third Lester B. Pearson Award as the NHL's most outstanding player. "You get voted on by players you play against every night, and I think they know the game better than the media," Jágr said during his acceptance address for the Award. He has been selected to seven of the NBA's first All-Star teams.

Jágr was named as the 24th captain in the New York Rangers' history on October 5, 2006, just over a decade before his former team Washington) had to play before the 2005–06 season. Jágr scored a goal on his first shift in the game, just under 30 seconds into the new season.

On November 19, 2006, Jágr scored his 600th career NHL goal against Tampa Bay goaltender Johan Holmqvist, making him the 16th player in NHL history to do so. Brendan Shanahan, a power play linemate, had scored his 600th goal just over three weeks ago, making them the first players to score their 600th goal in the same season.

Jágr received an assist on a Michal Rozsin goal to reach his 1,500th career goal against Washington on February 10, 2007. He is only the 12th NHL player to reach this level, and the fourth-fastest player to do so after Marcel Dionne, Mario Lemieux, and Wayne Gretzky.

Jágr scored his 30th goal of the 2006-07 season on April 5th, tying the NHL record held by Mike Gartner.

After a regular season was slowed by a weak shoulder, Jágr led the New York Rangers to a victory over the Atlanta Thrashers in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals.

Jágr scored his fourth goal of the 2007–08 season against New Jersey on November 14, making him the first player to score in 53 different NHL arenas.

Rangers general manager Glen Sather told Jágr, an unrestricted free agent for the first time in his career, that the club did not give him a new deal on July 3rd. Despite offers from other NHL clubs, Sather confirmed that the two teams never engaged in thorough discussions for a new deal, and that after many months of rumors, Jágr was "seriously considering" moving to Russia to end his career. Jágr expressed a desire to finish his career at his father's club, HC Kladno, in an interview. Jágr has signed a two-year deal with Avangard Omsk of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) on July 4th; the agreement was agreed to pay Jágr the equivalent of US$5 million per year.

On January 30, Jágr was appointed captain of Avangard. Jágr, a member of Avangard, was sitting next to Alexei Cherepanov, a first-round pick of the New York Rangers who died during a game against Vityaz Chekhov. On the bench at the Ice Hockey Center 2004 in Chekov, they were discussing the previous shift when the 19-year-old Cherepanov collapsed into Jágr.

Jágr expressed an interest in returning to the NHL in April 2009, saying he needed a break from the pressures of an 82-game NHL schedule. Jágr, who claimed to have lost 15 pounds since his last NHL season and was "working a lot harder than [he] has ever did in [his] life], said he would be interested in joining the Edmonton Oilers because of the passion they displayed in July 2008. Jágr has since signed a new deal with Avangard for the 2010–11 season, despite the fact that his first job with Avangard came to an end.

Jágr returned to the NHL on July 1, 2011 but rather than joining his original NHL team in Pittsburgh, the Penguins' cross-state rival, the Philadelphia Flyers, signed a one-year, $3.3 million deal. During his first game with the Flyers, he scored his 1,600th NHL point while assisting on a Claude Giroux goal as the Flyers defeated the Boston Bruins 21-0 in their season opener on October 6, 2011. Jágr was one of the top scorers on the first line with Giroux and Scott Hartnell in the 2011–12 season. On October 24, the Toronto Maple Leafs scored his first and second goals as a Flyer. He scored his 650th and 651st NHL goals against the Carolina Hurricanes on October 29, 2011. During Philadelphia's series against Pittsburgh, he scored his only goal of the 2012 playoffs. The Flyers were cut from the New Jersey Devils, who would later become the 2012 Eastern Conference champions.

According to reports, Jágr agreed to a one-year deal with the Dallas Stars worth $4.5 million on July 3. Jágr's first appearance for a club in the Western Conference was the signing. Jágr said during a conference call two days later that the Montreal Canadiens had been his first choice as a free agent. "I always wanted to play in Canada, and I wanted to go to Montreal if I had the opportunity," Jágr said, "but Montreal wasn't interested." Dallas' general manager Joe Nieuwendyk called me all of a sudden that the city was concerned."

Jágr played for his own team, Ryti Kladno, in the Czech Extraliga during the 2012-13 NHL lockout. He scored 24 goals and 33 assists in 34 games before leaving Kladno for the Stars, and his ranking in second place in Czech Extraliga's scoring rankings peaked during the lockout. He made his NHL debut as a character on January 19, 2013, when he scored two goals and two assists in a 4-3 win over the Phoenix Coyotes.

In a game against the Minnesota Wild on March 29, Jágr reached his 1,000th appearance and became the first non-Canadian NHLer to do so.

In the 2013 NHL Entry Draft, Jágr was traded to the Boston Bruins in exchange for Lane MacDermid, Cody Payne, and a conditional third-round pick. Jágr's first game in Boston's 1–0 win over the New Jersey Devils on April 4th, and his second Bruins goal in a 3–0 shutout of the Florida Panthers on April 21, 2013, tied for the most game-winning goals in an NHL career (118), previously set by Phil Esposito.

When Jágr played in the first game of the 2013 Stanley Cup Finals, he set a new record for the longest stretch between Finals appearances at 21 years, surpassing the previous record of 19 years, which was set by Gary Roberts in 2008; coincidently, both instances featured Penguins players at one end of those streaks. Jágr's opponents were the Chicago Blackhawks, who were also coincidental in his first Stanley Cup appearance. The team announced on June 26, 2013 that they did not intend to give Jágr a new deal after the Bruins lost the Finals to Chicago.

Jágr signed a one-year deal with the New Jersey Devils on July 22, 2013; the deal included $2 million as a deposit and another $2 million as an incentive reward if Jágr wanted to play in at least 40 games. Jágr, a 41-year-old defender, hoped to help the Devils recover from the death of Ilya Kovalchuk, who had previously moved to the KHL. In a 5–4 shootout loss to the Edmonton Oilers, Jágr scored his first goal as a Devil on October 7, 2013. The goal was scored on the 23rd anniversary of his first NHL appearance, which was against the Devils, coincidentally.

With his 690th goal, Jágr tied Gordie Howe to record for game-winning goals, putting him in ninth position (with ex teammate Mario Lemieux) for all-time goal-scoring leaders. He scored his 693rd goal on December 20th, putting him in eighth place over Steve Yzerman. With 694 goals scored, Jágr tied for seventh place in NHL history for goals scored. On January 14, 2014, he scored his 695th goal, beating Messier, taking him 14 goals away from beating Mike Gartner. The Devils defeated the New York Islanders 6–1 on March 1st year, with Jágr scoring his 700th appearance in the NHL. At their annual team awards ceremony on April 8, he was named the New Jersey Devils MVP Award at the end of the Devils' season. In his last game of the season (two assists in the third period), he scored two points, tying Steve Yzerman for eighth position on the all-time points list at 1,755. Jágr was the team's top scorer on the season, racking his highest scoring output in a season since 2007–08. On April 30, Jágr's performance prompted the Devils to re-sign him to a one-year deal. After scoring his 708th NHL goal for the Devils against Boston, he became the joint sixth highest scorer in NHL history in November 2014. In his 1,500th NHL appearance, he leapt over Marcel Dionne for fifth position on the NHL's all-time points list on December 8th. Jágr became the first player to score a hat-trick in NHL history on January 3, 2015, in a game against the Philadelphia Flyers. Nicklas Lidström, a Detroit Red Wings defenceman, had previously held the record.

Jágr was traded to the Florida Panthers in exchange for a second-round pick in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft and a third-round pick in 2016. In a 5–3 win over the Buffalo Sabres on February 28, he made his team debut in a 5–3 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on February 28 and earned his first points with the team in the following game. Jágr scored his 718th goal against Detroit on March 19th, his highest goal in his career, propelling him over Phil Esposito and fifth on the all-time goal scorers list. Jágr earned 1,800 career points in the NHL and sole possession of fourth place on the all-time points list in 9 April, beating former Penguins teammate Ron Francis for his second stint in the NHL. When Jágr assisted on a Jonathan Huberdeau goal on April 11, he scored 2,000 NHL points (including playoff games). In the third period, he scored his 800th NHL goal (including playoffs) later on. Jágr signed a new one-year, $3.5 million deal with Florida on April 12, one day after the conclusion of the 2014–15 regular season.

Jágr has reached several milestones as a Panther. He scored his 732nd goal on his way to his fourth all-time NHL scoring list on December 20, 2015, beating Marcel Dionne for his fourth spot in NHL history. Jágr became the sixth player in NHL history to record 1,100 career assists on February 4, 2016. He scored his 742nd goal on February 20th, beating Brett Hull for third place in NHL history. Jágr lost 1,851 points in overtime to the Bruins on Saturday, beating Gordie Howe on the all-time points list and placing him in third place overall. Jágr appeared in his first playoff series since the 2013 Stanley Cup Finals, with the Panthers qualifying for the 2016 playoffs. Despite the fact that he only contributed two points in the Panthers' six-game first-round exit (who would capture their first playoff series since 1993), he became the fifth NHL player to reach 200 career playoff points.

Jágr led the Panthers in scoring at 44 years old, scoring 66 points. The team announced on May 5th, 2016 that they had signed Jágr to a new one-year, $4 million contract, in appreciation for his outstanding leadership and leadership skills.

Jágr was the third player in NHL history to score 750 goals on October 20, 2016. He scored his 1,888th career point on December 22, 2016, his second highest goal in career points, beating Mark Messier, who was second in second, and his second in career points on February 15, 2017.

"FA 1994 - all GM calls, FA 2017- 0 calls," Jágr posted on Twitter, as a free agent, as well as photographs from 1994 and 2017. In the 1994 photo, a smiling Jágr is on the phone with an unspecified general manager. He is seen in the 2017 photograph with a muddled look on his phone. Within minutes, the Panthers announced that they did not offer Jágr a new deal.

Jágr signed a one-year deal with the Calgary Flames on October 4, 2017. Jágr had predicted that he would continue playing professionally until age 50, but later said that it would be unlikely that he will stop playing after the 2017–18 season, which would be his 46th birthday. He observed the tendency of teams to exclude older players like himself, which he finds understandable and in light of which he remarked, "I was really lucky." The Flames were Jágr's ninth NHL team but first Canadian team, prompting him to say, "I want the knowledge so I can say I played for a Canadian team one day." So I'm here."

Jágr scored his first goal as a Flame against the Detroit Red Wings on November 9, 2017, earning two points in a 6–3 victory. However, it was revealed that Jágr and the Flames were discussing the end of his deal on January 6, 2018, because injuries had limited Jágr to a career-low seven points (including the aforementioned one goal) in 22 games. Jágr was put on the injured reserve, retroactive to 31 December 2017, while the Flames called up Ryan Lomberg from the Stockton Heat, the Flames' American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate. Jágr was released on waivers, signaling the end of his brief time with the Flames; the following day, he was sent to Ryti Kladno in the WSM Liga.

Jágr's first game for his hometown team and his first game since December 31, 2017, playing almost 20 minutes and collecting three assists. He was injured in his fifth game for Kladno and was hospitalized for the remainder of the season due to a knee injury. He appeared in ten playoff games for a mere seconds in order to be eligible for playoff participation. Jágr revealed on May 14 that he wants to remain with Kladno for his 30th professional season. Kladno was promoted to the top-flight Czech Extraliga on 19 April 19th. Jágr scored four goals in one game.

Career statistics

Bold indicates led league

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