Jagr still searching for an NHL spot
Czech native working out with team he owns
POMPANO BEACH — It was surprising the Florida Panthers didn’t re-sign NHL icon Jaromir Jagr after a very productive season — even at age 45. However, it’s perhaps more stunning that NHL’s No. 2 alltime points leader is still without a contract, and training camps open next month.
For the first time since July 1 when Panthers General Manager Dale Tallon explained that Jagr didn’t fit into new coach Bob Boughner’s uptempo, inyour-face style, the Czech Republic great broke his silence with American media and said he was surprised he didn’t have an NHL job yet.
Jagr is in the Czech Republic working out with Kladno, his hometown team that he owns in the country’s second-tier professional league.
“The most serious negotiations I have are with Kladno. Because Kladno has a smart owner who knows what he wants,” Jagr joked in an interview with NHL.com after an exhibition game to mark fellow Czech forward Martin Havlat’s retirement. “I don’t have a clue. I leave it all on my agent [Petr
Svoboda]. There is a couple of [NHL] teams that showed interest, but nothing specific yet.
“It’s true that when I got back to the NHL [in 2011], I told myself I would very much want to get to 2,000 [NHL] points. But it’s still far away. I didn’t expect it would be so hard to get a job in the NHL this year.”
Jagr scored 16 goals and 46 points while playing in all 82 games with the Panthers last season, fourth highest on the team. Jagr, the oldest player in the NHL last season, has 1,914 points, second behind Wayne Gretzky’s 2,857. His 765 goals are third behind Gordie Howe’s 801 and Gretzky’s 894.
Three former Panthers, including a couple of Jagr’s Czech national teammates, had various opinions on why he remains unemployed.
“He had a really good year, is a legend and firstballot Hall of Famer, but there’s not too many players who are over 35 in the league,” said Olli Jokinen, the Panthers’ all-time leader with 188 goals and 419 points. Jokinen now runs the South Florida Hockey Academy at the Glacier Ice and Snow Arena in Pompano Beach.
“We’re talking about 45. He put up numbers, but as older, veteran players we’re all going to face the music at one point in our career,” Jokinen said.
Tomas Vokoun, third on the Panthers’ all-time goalies’ list with 101 wins, and forward Radek Dvorak, the franchise’s leader with 16 shorthanded goals, are instructors at Jokinen’s academy.
“Obviously, the trend, you can’t stop it, is speed, speed and speed,” Vokoun said. “His numbers are there and [he] is a very valuable player in the offensive zone, but I think the problem you run into with players his age that teams look at is they want to be faster in the neutral zone. That’s one aspect of his game, no matter what you do when you’re 45, you obviously can’t be as fast as when you were 30.
“There are teams who have the top six spots [locked up] and may think of him as a third-line player. He’s never really played that, so it’s hard for teams to say we’ll try him in that position or how he will react to it.”
Jagr said he would accept a second- or third-line role, and that it could benefit him by not playing against top defensive pairs, as he did in Florida for the past twoplus seasons and for most of his 23 NHL seasons.
Dvorak, who played 1,260 games, retired at 37. Jokinen and Vokoun were done at 36.
“Every team takes a different approach; every single year there are always changes,” Dvorak said. “The Panthers decided to go with different players. … He wants to play, still has the drive and is still in good shape. He proves that every year. He’s one of a kind.
“The summer isn’t over yet. We’ve got a month left before training camp starts. Anything can happen.”
Jagr explained he didn’t opt to play in the Czech Republic’s elite league or the KHL so that if an NHL team comes calling, he can leave right away without any contractual restraints.
“Let’s say some team deals with injuries and needs help, then I could pack my stuff in the next day and go,” Jagr told NHL.com.