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The Latest On The Curious Case Of Jagr 2.0,The Pessimist

July 16, 2013, 11:46 AM ET [81 Comments]
Eklund
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In what feels like another lifetime ago, in the days before Jaromir Jagr left a few mediocre seasons with the Caps and NY Rangers and headed for the KHL, the scuttlebutt was Jagr had become a problem in the "room" and a selfish player.

On July 1, 2011, three teams who had been talking to Jagr for months: Detroit, Montreal, and Pittsburgh were "shocked and disappointed" when all of the sudden Jagr left them all at the altar to sign with the Flyers. The Flyers offered the most money.

The Penguins were the most noticeably pissed off taking the time in that busy UFA Day to put out a statement saying:

"We made what we thought was a very fair contract offer to Jaromir on Tuesday, based on his stated interest of returning to the Penguins. We made our best offer from the start, given our salary-cap structure, in an attempt to facilitate a deal. But now, after several days, with an extended time frame for making a decision, and additional teams getting involved, we have decided to move in a different direction."

It was a first for me. To hear a team explaining NOT signing someone...but remember it was just the day before that Shero had stated "I hope Jaromir meant what he said when he said he wanted to do right by Mario" ....In 2008 in a Hockey News interview Jagr had said he owed his hockey career to Mario and would play for the league minimum...

And it was only hours before July 1, 2011 when Rob Rossi interviewed Jaromir's agent Svoboda who had said his client's "heart is in Pittsburgh."

You can understand why the Penguins were pissed when they put forth a competitive offer a tad over the minimum (rumored around 2.7M) and Jagr kept turning them down.

When Buffalo came in and offered Ville Leino a contract well above the Flyers offer the Flyers suddenly found themselves with 3.3M and rolled the dice on Jagr. If you want to "do right" by Mario signing across state in Philly is well....a serious hypocrisy.

But the Flyers offered the most money. 3.3M

As for the Flyers though, they quickly found they had signed a rebooted Jagr. JJ 2.0. A player far from selfish in the room, far from lazy. A player who would act like a mentor and a coach to the young players on the team. A player who would teach Claude Giroux how to be a Star.

The season went really well and Jagr showed how he had adjusted his game with his skating gone and used an unbelievable hockey sense and his strength alone to slow the game down and bring the game to him.

But when the playoffs came in Philly he ran out of gas against the Devils.. yet still he talked about how much he loved playing in Philly. How much he wanted to come back. A few weeks later he added he wanted to come back at the same price and be guaranteed a spot on the Flyers top 6, and despite that rather ballsy request he had his backers. During the team exit interviews player after player, including now superstar Claude Giroux, made pitches to Laviolette to bring Jagr back.

The Flyers tried, but when push came to shove the Flyers made a calculated call. They wouldn't go as high as Dallas was willing to go and Philly management, while loving all Jagr brought, was left thinking how maybe they had gotten all they would get out of him already.

Montreal called again...and there were quotes from Jagr of how he always wanted to pull the famed Habs sweater on and how his one regret was that he never played in a Canadian market...

But Dallas had the money.

Dallas had the advantage, because the taxes in Quebec are what they are and Texas is the best tax situation in the NHL. So it was off to Dallas where again on the ice and in the room Jagr proved his worth...and come deadline time the Stars found themselves fortunate with the bizarre situation that saw Boston losing Iginla in the middle of the night to Pittsburgh. The Bruins shipped a first rounder to Dallas to ease the pain.

Then came the playoffs, where Jagr had faded in Philly, but this time the playoffs came following a much shorter season and Jagr was very strong. Jagr struggled to score..but still Jagr was two overtime posts away from being the difference between the Bruins winning the Cup.

That said, the playoffs weren't even over before we heard the Bruins didn't see #68 as a good fit moving forward....

Fast forward to today...UFA Season 2013... and Jagr despite having legit teams (Montreal and Carolina) willing to put a multi-million dollar deals on the table Jaromir makes a public statement that he is pessimistic about signing in the NHL this season...and he does it in Czech...on Facebook.

It's really not that complicated..it's just business...again.

Jagr has a price. He should be saying he is pessimistic about getting the price he wants to play in the NHL this season...but he is smarter than that. He wants this statement to be heard by the KHL as well. That much is very clear.

Cap space is very limited this year. Next summer will be a whole new ball of wax. With an expected HUGE jump in the cap along with some seriously big UFAs out there I can tell you right now we are in for a treat next summer.

As for Jagr....teams are onto this. Teams want to sign him for all he brings to your team, your fans, and your young players who flat out idolize the guy. He is a great leader. A great teacher. But he is also a savvy businessman.

And that's what this video is about. While I don't speak Czech those who do say Jagr sounds very "agent-like" more than he does a player...and really when you think about it would you at all be shocked if Jagr the player becomes Jagr the agent? Players who idolize him could easily become clients...

If so the fun could be just beginning...

Where do I see him signing?

Carolina. But not for 3, more like 2.2. Montreal's taxes don't work for Jags and when I asked the Flyers if they would still consider themselves a possibility they gave me the very funny, "not really" which I think sums up the way many feel about Jagr...as of now...all that said, NJ suddenly has money and Lou does like Jagr...so maybe Jagr will once again benefit from the oddest of circumstances...if Brunner goes elsewhere...

When will he sign?

Based on past history these kinds of pleas are usually followed up by some sort of epiphany. So I want to say soon and that we are officially in the end game....but a week or so ago one team thought they had it done last week...
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