I am surprised that others are so surprised by Jaromir Jagr's decision to sign a one-year, $4.5 million contract with the Dallas Stars. It's a deal that makes sense on both sides.
On the Dallas side, despite the signing of another 40-year-old free agent winger (Ray Whitney) on Sunday, there were five very good reasons to make this deal with the future Hall of Famer:
1) It's only for one year (and that's all Jagr wants, too).
2) The team had to add salary to get to the cap floor, and outbidding other teams on Jagr was a way to get most of the way there. Re-signing RFA Jamie Benn to a long-term deal and other RFAs such as Philip Larsen will take care of the rest.
3) With the tenuous health of captain Brenden Morrow, there was still a need for another top-six forward. Jagr showed in Philadelphia last season that he can still play the game at a pretty high level.
4) The perceptions of him as some spoiled diva could not have been further from the reality of the type of person he was in Philadelphia. Jagr was a
positive influence on his teammates in Philadelphia this past season. Far from being a disruptive force, he stepped in as a highly respected member of the team's leadership group and was admired by young players and veterans alike. Teammates marveled at his work ethic. He was also great with the local media, winning the Good Guy Award and was the Philadelphia nominee for the Masterton Trophy.
5) From a ticket sales perspective, Dallas needs some marquee names. Even at age 40, Jagr's name is familiar to the most casual of hockey fans. He is also close to reaching a pair of major career milestones: 1,000 career assists and 10th-place on the NHL's all-time scoring list.
From Jagr's point of view, the player made it clear even before the start of free agency that he was looking to play a prominent on-ice role next season. While he won't have Claude Giroux as a linemate anymore, he will still be part of a solid top six group in Dallas. He may play with Derek Roy and Michael Ryder on the second line or else swap out with Whitney to join Jamie Benn and Loui Eriksson on the top line.
Jagr averaged close to a point-per-game this past 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 for the Flyers, 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. 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.
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.
Of course, money no doubt played into Jagr's decision to sign with the Stars -- but not necessarily for the reasons that everyone automatically assumes.
On the Flyers' 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."
Interestingly, earlier this past 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.
This past year, JJagr truly went above and beyond making himself approachable for young players: the hockey legend took 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.
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. Jagr and Whitney will more than ably fill this role in Dallas apart from their on-ice stats.
As someone who found covering Jagr in Philadelphia this season a pleasure (and someone with a residence in Texas who is there whenever the Flyers have lengthy road trips), I am very much looking forward to continuing to see him play on a regular basis. The Stars will enjoy having him on the club, despite whatever snarky Tweets you may read about the signing. Good one-year move for both sides.
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