As first reported yesterday in the Czech Republic and then
expanded upon by Tim Panaccio, the Flyers now appear on track to get a new one-year contract done with Jaromir Jagr.
Jagr's agent, former Flyers defenseman Petr Svoboda, confirmed what an associate told the Czech press yesterday: Svoboda and Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren have had productive discussions about Jagr and hope to get something done before July 1, perhaps even before the NHL Draft.
While the 40-year-old Jagr's points could be replaceable on the ice, it is hard to put a replacement value on the level of respect and admiration the future Hall of Famer commands -- among young players and veterans alike -- in the Flyers' locker room. It has been said that several Flyers made a point of telling Holmgren during their end-of-season exit interviews that bringing Jagr back is one of the things they believe is important to the team furthering its success of this past season.
Jagr averaged close to a point-per-game this season until close to the time of the Winter Classic. He struggled with recurring groin and other lower-body ailments thereafter, and his production rate dropped severely. However, Jagr posted points in five of six games in the Flyers' first-round playoff win over Pittsburgh before struggling mightily (and being moved down in the lineup) in the second-round series against the New Jersey Devils.
As it turned out, Jagr sustained a severe left quad pull late in the Pittsburgh series. The injury was so bad that it was hemorrhaging internally prior to the series against the New Jersey Devils. He stayed in the lineup but his ability to practice and skate in games was clearly limited.
Even on locker clean-out day, Jagr did not want to discuss the injury, so as not to make any excuses for his ineffective play in the New Jersey series. He simply said everyone plays through injuries in the playoffs.
When asked several times that day if he wanted to re-sign with the Flyers, Jagr never answered in the affirmative. Instead, he would only say that he and Svoboda needed to talk first with the team about what his role would be the next season -- i.e., would he get a chance to continue playing on Claude Giroux's line.
He did say several times that this season was the most enjoyable one of his career and he loved everything about being a Flyer -- from his teammates, to everyone he dealt with in the organization from top to bottom and from to the fans to the city of Philadelphia itself.
Some saw that as a "thank you and goodbye" statement. Jagr fell short of reiterating a statement made in January that the Flyers were his first and only choice for continuing his career -- apart from reiterating a pledge to close out his career with one season playing for the HC Rytiri Kladno (Kladno Knights) team he owns in his Czech hometown.
However, it should also be said that the earlier statement came before Jagr was moved off the top power play unit and then occasionally rotated off the Giroux line at even strength. Jagr never rocked the boat during the season but he made crystal clear after the playoffs that he would not return if his role was further scaled back next year and the team asked him back solely for his locker room presence.
When Holmgren spoke at the locker cleanout day, he appeared to say that the Flyers appeared likely to let Jagr hit free agency on July 1 and then make a decision to accept an offer from the Flyers or to sign elsewhere.
Said Holmgren, “I’d like to have him back. We’ll see, I think there will be other teams that would like to have him on their team, too.”
Now it appears that Jagr -- in whom both the Montreal Canadiens and Detroit Red Wings still allegedly have interest -- will not test the open market before making a final decision. Of course, that depends in part on the question of how much money it will take to get Jagr back under contract for one more season.
Jagr's contract for the 2011-12 season paid him $3.3 million. That was a little more than he was offered by Pittsburgh or Montreal as a free agent last year but apparently significantly less than one NHL team (believed to be St. Louis) offered him before he chose to accept the Flyers' offer.
Even on locker cleanout day, Jagr reiterated that his decision for next season would be based on role not on money. However, a few months earlier, he explained that he sees the two issues as being interconnected to some degree.
"When there is more (financial) commitment to a player, the more important the club expects him to be for the team," Jagr explained. "To me, it's not about trying to make as much money as possible in my contract. But you can't totally separate it."
For that reason, I cannot see Jagr taking a paycut to stay in Philadelphia. However, I could see him playing for about the same money as on his about-to-expire contract.
Interestingly, earlier this season, Jagr said that his own experiences as a team owner in the Czech Republic's Extraliga have influenced how he sees contracts and the issue of roster management from both sides of the fence.
"As a player, I always thought that management watches everything you do on the ice. But it's not really that way at all," Jagr said. "What you are looking at (in running a team) is how the pieces fit together on the ice, and not what this player or that player is doing. You also look at the budget and the business side and the public (i.e. ticket sales) and other things that players really don't have to look at."
Jagr was asked if that balance of on-ice/bottom line focus is different in the NHL.
"Well, the NHL is a much bigger business and there are a lot more people involved (in club management) on the business side and hockey side. I'm not involved on that over here, but what I can say is the idea of running a hockey business is the same. As a player, you think about getting yourself ready to play and that's the only focus," he said.
Apart from his high degree of intelligence and unique -- sometimes even maverick -- philosophies on the strategic on-ice aspects of hockey, Jagr's incredible work ethic and commitment to conditioning are what he brings to the hockey team. That is something that veteran and young teammates alike could not help but admire and try to emulate. Just as one example, Scott Hartnell credited improvements in his own conditioning regimen directly to the influence of being around Jagr.
Jagr also goes above and beyond making himself approachable for young players: the hockey legend takes the initiative himself. From top to bottom in the Flyers lineup, Jagr took every effort this year to be the best possible teammate.
Some examples: He took fellow Kladno native Jakub Voracek under his wing this year and invited other young players to join him in workouts. A fluent Russian speaker, he was often spotted in the locker room to converse with English-challenged teammate Sergei Bobrovsky in the young backup goaltender's native language.
If Jagr leaves as a free agent this summer -- and anything is still possible until a contract is actually signed -- it is the combination of his day-to-day locker room presence, his stature as one of the greatest offensive players ever to play the game and his ability (when healthy) to remain a productive player that would be extremely difficult to replace. The points alone are the most replaceable element, just as Jagr's 19 goals and 54 points this season replaced Ville Leino's 19 goals and 53 points from 2010-11.
Assuming Jagr remains in Philadelphia one more year, he is very likely to attain several more career milestones while wearing a Flyers uniform. He is 12 regular season assists away from 1,000 for his career, three goals away from tying Luc Robitaille (668 goals) for 10th on the all-time regular season list and 47 points away from becoming just the 8th player in NHL history to reach 1,700 career points.
While some fans undervalue the importance of having a few elder statesmen on the team, they are very important to the stability of the club. That is why, if things were to end up that Jagr did not return, I would be in favor of the club bring back Mike Knuble on a modest contract for next season.
I understand that if the Flyers re-sign Jagr, Jakub Voracek (which also appears to be progressing, according to Panotch's article) and Matt Carle, it doesn't leave much salary cap room to do anything else come July. Any move to bolster the defense would more likely have to be made via trade rather than free agency.
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I am very much a believer in teams choosing the best available player in the first round of the NHL Draft rather than drafting according to positional need. Go for the guy whom the scouts feel has the best chance to become an impact player at his position, whatever that position may be.
When it comes to drafting goalies in the first round, however, I am very leery of trusting whether he is truly the best available option -- or, more accurately, whether there may be a goalie selected in a later round of the same draft who ultimately proves to be an equal or superior (sometimes far superior) NHL goalie.
Teenage goalies are the hardest to project five or more years down the road, with defensemen being the second hardest and skilled forwards generally being somewhat easier to project at least in terms of establishing a timetable to become productive NHL players. Therefore, if a team selects a goaltender in the first or even the second round, my feeling is that the club's scouts had better be absolutely convinced the kid is going to go on to be a star in the NHL.
With the Flyers drafting 20th this year, they may be faced with the choice of deciding whether the potential upside of top-ranked goaltenders
Malcolm Subban or
Oscar Dansk are high enough to bypass a position player. I do not think Russian goalie Andrei Vasilevsky will go earlier in the 2012 Draft than either Subban or Dansk despite the fact that Central Scouting rated Vasilevsky above Dansk as the top-ranked European goalie available this year.
There are some scouts who believe that Subban and Dansk both have the potential to become upper-echalon goaltenders in the NHL someday (with all the usual caveats applying about playing on a defensively-sound team and receiving sufficient goal support). As much as any goalie is truly a solid bet, both Subban and Dansk are said to have all the elements of future NHL starting goaltenders.
Subban, the younger brother of Canadiens' defenseman P.K. Subban, is widely considered to be the most athletically gifted goaltender to enter the Draft in quite a few years. Dansk
is said to combine the very best elements of technique, well-rounded skills and the dual benefit of training in his native Sweden under famed goaltending coach Per-Erik Alcén and playing three years in North America for the renowned Shattuck St. Mary's prep school.
HockeyBuzz's Eric Smith wrote an outstanding blog the other day spotlighting scouts' views on Subban (see link above). I asked Färjestads BK goaltending coach Erik Granqvist (one of Europe's most respected goalie coaches in his own right) to weigh in with his thoughts on Dansk.
Wrote Granqvist, "Dansk is a very intelligent person. Very athletic and strong in the body. Reads the game well. You can see that he has played over there when he plays. Big potential. Right now one of the best junior goalies in the world. He is also extremely competitive. Definitely has big potential to be a starter goalie in the NHL in the future with hard work and smart coaching."
Of course, once a goaltender gets to the NHL or even the AHL level, the real test begins.
Back in 2008, the Flyers' scouts were sold enough on the impact-player potential of top-rated goaltending prospect that the club tried to move up in the Draft to get him. Instead, Nashville took Pickard with the 18th pick and the Flyers selected defenseman Luca Sbisa with the next pick.
Now in Anaheim, Sbisa is a regular -- if still somewhat inconsistent -- starting defenseman in the NHL. Pickard has been struggling at the ECHL level the last couple years and is now behind AHL starter Jeremy Smith (a second-round pick in 2007) much less NHL backup Anders Lindbäck and NHL starter Pekka Rinne on Nashville's goaltending depth chart.
This case is hardly unusual. Historically, goalie drafting is basically a crapshoot. There are scores of similar stories in which goalies who went early in the NHL Draft simply didn't develop while less-touted ones became stars. Alternatively, the first-round pick may turn out like Brian Boucher or Martin Biron and play for many years in the NHL but not as long-term starters.
That said, if Flyers scouts truly feel deep down that Subban or Dansk will be a future star of a higher caliber than an available position player, the team should have faith in the recommendation. They should not be scared to use the pick on a goalie solely because history suggests a higher risk of failure/regret down the road a few years or because Ilya Bryzgalov's contract "dictates" that he'll be the team's starter for the next eight seasons.
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