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Ice hockey player
Jaromír Jágr
Born February 15, 1972
Kladno, CS
Height 6 ft 3 in (191 cm)
Weight 235 lb (107 kg; 16 st 11 lb)
Position Right Wing
Shoots Left
NHL team
Former teams		 New York Rangers
Pittsburgh Penguins
Washington Capitals
NHL draft 5th overall, 1990
Pittsburgh Penguins
Playing career 1988–present

Jaromír Jágr listen, better known in English as Jaromir Jagr, (born February 15, 1972 in Kladno, Czechoslovakia) is regarded as one of the top ice hockey players in the NHL today, and is one of the best European players that has ever worn an NHL uniform. Jágr wears the number 68 in honor of the Prague Spring rebellion that occurred in the Czech Republic in 1968, also the year in which his grandfather died while in prison.

Career overview

Known for combining exceptional stickhandling and playmaking skills with a large frame and strong legs, Jágr currently plays with the New York Rangers. He still resides in the Czech Republic during the off-season. His father, also named Jaromír Jágr, is prosperous and owns a chain of hotels. The younger Jágr showed his athletic aptitude early; he began skating at age three and was always one of the best players as he worked his way up through the Czech hockey leagues. At the age of 16, he was playing at the highest level of competition in Czechoslovakia.

Jágr was the first Czechoslovakian player to be drafted by the NHL without first having to defect to the west. He was taken by the Pittsburgh Penguins with #5 pick in the 1990 NHL Entry Draft and played with them for the next ten years. He was a supporting player with the powerhouse Penguins that won back-to-back Stanley Cups in 1991 and 1992. He was the youngest player in NHL history to ever score a goal in the Stanley Cup finals, when he was 19 years of age.

Early in his career with the Penguins, Jágr - then sporting a mullet - was often promoted as a teen idol, whom teenaged girls found adorable, and teenage boys admired for his athletic talent. Jágr possessed a sense of humor about the marketing buzz around him. Before he had a grasp of the English language, he could be heard reading the daily weather forecast on Pittsburgh radio station WDVE in his broken, thickly accented English. He and team mate (and fellow countryman) Jan Hrdina were promoted as the "Czechmates", a play on the term "checkmate" from chess. Some Penguins fans realized that the letters in his first name could be scrambled to form the anagram "Mario Jr", a reference to elder team mate Mario Lemieux.

It was in the later years that he truly broke out and became one of the most dominant right wings in the league. He developed into an amazingly strong forward, blessed with powerful legs and a scoring touch rivaled by few players in the last quarter-century other than Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux. From 1994-95 to 2000-01 on a decent Penguins team, Jágr won five NHL scoring titles including four in a row from 1997-98 to 2000-01, and in the 1995-96 season scored 149 points. In 1998 he led the Czech Republic's team to a gold medal at the Nagano Olympics.

With the return of Mario Lemieux from retirement, the Penguins had two superstars, but friction developed between the two. Also the struggling, small-market Penguins could no longer hope to meet Jágr's massive salary demands. Thus in 2001 they traded him to the Washington Capitals for three young prospects.

Later that year the Capitals signed Jágr to the largest contract ever in NHL history - $77 million over 7 years at an average salary of $11 million per year, with an option for an eighth year. Jágr, however, failed to perform up to expectations. In the 2001-2002 season, Washington failed to make the playoffs and Jágr appeared to be playing at a level far below that which had been expected. In 2002-2003 Washington managed to finish 6th overall in the Eastern Conference, but lost to the upstart Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round of the playoffs. (Tampa Bay would win the Stanley Cup in the next 2003-04 NHL Season.) While in Washington, Jágr did not experience as much popularity as fellow forward Peter Bondra.

Disgruntled, the Washington ownership spent much of 2003 trying to trade Jágr, but a year before a new Collective Bargaining Agreement was to be signed, few teams were willing to risk $11 million on Jágr. Eventually he was traded to the New York Rangers for Anson Carter and an agreement that Washington would pay appox. four million dollars per year of Jágr's salary. Jágr also agreed to defer (with interest) one million dollar per year for the remainer of his contract to allow the trade to go ahead.

However, due to the new collective bargaining agreement signed before the start of the 2005-06 season, Jagr’s salary was subsequently reduced to $7.8 million, the maximum allowed under the terms of the new salary cap.

During the NHL labor dispute in 2004-05, he played for Kladno in the Czech Republic, and afterwards for the Avangard ice-hockey team at Omsk in Russia.

He has earned a reputation as a "coach killer" by some sports media pundits in Pittsburgh and Washington. The firings of Kevin Constantine and Ivan Hlinka in Pittsburgh and Ron Wilson and Bruce Cassidy in Washington were widely blamed on their inability to get along with Jágr. His now infamous quote to one Pittsburgh reporter that he felt like he was "dying alive" in a Penguin uniform has been well publicized in the cities where he has subsequently played.

In New York, however, he has had a very smooth relationship with coach Tom Renney and as an alternate captain (along with Darius Kasparaitis and Steve Rucchin), has provided leadership for the Rangers in their resurgence in 2005-2006.

Jaromír Jágr returned to his old form at the 2005 World Hockey Championship in Austria. He led the Czech Republic to Gold and was elected a tournament all-star in the process. He also become a member of hockey's prestigious Triple Gold Club, players who have won a Stanley Cup, a World Hockey Championship and an Olympic gold medal.

He started strong during the beginning of the 2005 season and the return from the lockout of the NHL. He became only the fourth player in NHL history to score 10 or more goals in less than 10 games at the start of a season. His return to dominance helped the Rangers return to the Stanley Cup playoffs, but injuries to Jágr and others contributed to a quick Ranger exit in a first round sweep of the Broadway Blueshirts by the New Jersey Devils.

Jágr scored his 1400th point on a power play goal against the Philadelphia Flyers on March 2, 2006. He is the leading active point-scorer among European-born NHL players, and is second on the all-time points list for European players. Jagr's milestone goal pushed him past Jari Kurri into second place all-time, trailing only Stan Mikita.

On March 18, 2006 against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Jagr became only the 6th Rangers player in team history to break the 100-point barrier, and became the only Ranger right winger to score 100 points in a season.

On March 24, 2006 against the Florida Panthers Jagr became the first player in the 2005-2006 NHL-season to score 50 goals. Jagr has broken the 50-goal plateau two other times.

On March 27th, 2006 against Buffalo, Jagr had a goal and an assist, which tied both the Rangers single season goal record of 52 (Adam Graves, 1993-94) and the Rangers single season points record of 109 (Jean Ratelle, 1972-73). Two nights later, on March 29, 2006, Jagr passed Ratelle when he was the primary assist on Petr Prucha's 1st-period goal against the New York Islanders' Rick DiPietro.

On April 8th, 2006 against Boston, Jagr scored his league-leading 53rd goal of the season, breaking the Rangers' single-season goals record of 52 set by Adam Graves in 1993-94.

After leading the league in points and goals for most of the 2005-06 NHL season and having already helped his team clinch a playoff spot, Jagr was passed by the San Jose Sharks dynamic duo of Joe Thornton (125 points) and Jonathan Cheechoo (56 goals), losing both the Art Ross and Maurice Richard trophies on the final week of the season. Jagr finished with 123 points, 54 goals, and 24 power-play goals, second in the league in all three categories. He finished third in the league in both assists with 69, and +/- at 34. Despite being inched out by Thornton for the Art Ross Trophy and Hart Trophy (league MVP), Jagr won his third Lester B. Pearson Award as the league's outstanding player.

International play

Olympic medal record
Men's Ice hockey
Gold medal – first place 1998 Nagano Ice hockey
Bronze medal – third place 2006 Turin Ice hockey

Jágr has represented his country many times, but his play has been hindered by injuries. In 1994 he and Martin Straka arrived in the middle of the World Championships. The fans' expectations were high as Jágr was an NHL star, but before they were able to integrate into the team Czechs lost their quarterfinal game and were out of the tournament. Jagr was also hurt in numerous other games.

The 1996 World Cup of Hockey also did not see Jágr at his best. His performance was hampered by the flu and it only underscored the poor play of the whole team. After losing 7-3 to Finland, 3-0 to Sweden and 7-1 even to relatively weak Germany, the team did not qualify for the playoffs.

All this was forgotten in 1998 when the Czech Republic won the gold medal in the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano. It was only the third gold medal for Czech or Czechoslovak sportsmen from the Winter Olympics and it is still fondly remembered.

Jágr did not play in the 1996, 1999, 2000 or 2001 World Championships where the Czech Republic won the gold medals. He was a member of the team on the 2004 World Championships in Prague, Czech Republic where the expectations were high, especially after the team won all the games in the group, but they lost in the quarterfinals game.

It was the 2005 World Championships that finally brought a gold medal to Jágr. Although he broke his finger in an early game against Germany, he played with it bandaged during the rest of the tournament and led his team to victory.

More injuries struck Jágr in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. He was injured after a hit in the game against Finland; he required stitches to his eyebrow. Luckily for Jágr and the Czech team the injury was not as serious as it first seemed, and Jágr was able to play in the following games. He was unable to finish the bronze medal game due to muscle injury. Despite this trouble Jágr won the second Olympic medal in his life — bronze this time.

Off-ice incidents

Jágr has been the subject of several notorious off-ice incidents:

  • He appeared in drag at the 1999 opening of his sports bar in the Czech Republic.
  • Although he has repeatedly denied that he has a gambling problem, he admitted in 2003 that he settled debts totaling US$950,000 with two internet gambling sites between 1998 and 2002. The first of these incidents centered around Belize-based website CaribSports and its owner, William Caesar, to which Jágr owed US$500,000. Sports Illustrated reported that Jagr agreed to make monthly payments to Caesar to settle the debt, and Caesar leaked the story to the press when Jágr stopped making payments. Caesar told SI that he had technicians configure Jágr's betting page so he could not bet on NHL games, which would be a violation of league rules.
  • In 2003, the IRS filed a US$3.27 million lien against him for unpaid taxes for the 2001 tax year. Only a few months before, Jágr had settled a US$350,000 claim for taxes dating to 1999.

Awards

NHL:

Other:

NHL Records

  • Most assists by a rookie in Stanley Cup Finals (1991) - 5
  • Most regular season points by a right wing (1995-1996) - 149
  • Most regular season assists by a right wing (1995-1996) - 87
  • Most regular season points by a European-born player (1995-1996) - 149
  • Most regular season goals by a New York Rangers player (2005-2006) - 54
  • Most regular season points by a New York Rangers player (2005-2006) - 123
  • Most regular season power play goals by a New York Rangers player (2005-2006) - 24
  • Most regular season shots on goal by a New York Rangers player (2005-2006) - 368
  • Most regular season game-winning goals by a New York Rangers player (2005-2006) - 9
  • Most regular season goals by a New York Rangers right wing (2005-2006) - 54
  • Most regular season assists by a New York Rangers right wing (2005-2006) - 69
  • Most regular season points by a New York Rangers right wing (2005-2006) - 123
  • Most all-time regular season points by a player who started his career in Europe - 1432 (As of April 18, 2006)

Career statistics

    Regular Season   Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
1988-89 Kladno Extraliga 29 3 3 6 4 10 5 7 12 0
1989-90 Kladno Extraliga 42 22 28 50 9 8 2 10
1990-91 Pittsburgh NHL 80 27 30 57 42 24 3 10 13 6
1991-92 Pittsburgh NHL 70 32 37 69 34 21 11 13 24 6
1992-93 Pittsburgh NHL 81 34 60 94 61 12 5 4 9 23
1993-94 Pittsburgh NHL 80 32 67 99 61 6 2 4 6 16
1994-95 Kladno Extraliga 11 8 14 22 10 -- -- -- -- --
1994-95 Bolzano¹ Italy 1 0 0 0 0 -- -- -- -- --
1994-95 Schalke German-3 1 1 10 11 0 -- -- -- -- --
1994-95 Pittsburgh NHL 48 32 38 70 37 12 10 5 15 6
1995-96 Pittsburgh NHL 82 62 87 149 96 18 11 12 23 18
1996-97 Pittsburgh NHL 63 47 48 95 40 5 4 4 8 4
1997-98 Pittsburgh NHL 77 35 67 102 64 6 4 5 9 2
1998-99 Pittsburgh NHL 81 44 83 127 66 9 5 7 12 16
1999-00 Pittsburgh NHL 63 42 54 96 50 11 8 8 16 6
2000-01 Pittsburgh NHL 81 52 69 121 42 16 2 10 12 18
2001-02 Washington NHL 69 31 48 79 30 -- -- -- -- --
2002-03 Washington NHL 75 36 41 77 38 6 2 5 7 2
2003-04 Washington NHL 46 16 29 45 26 -- -- -- -- --
2003-04 NY Rangers NHL 31 15 14 29 12 -- -- -- -- --
2004-05 Kladno Extraliga 17 11 17 28 16 -- -- -- -- --
2004-05 Omsk Russia 32 16 23 39 63 11 4 9 13 22
2005-06 NY Rangers NHL 82 54 69 123 72 2 0 1 1 2
NHL Totals 1109 591 841 1432 771 148 67 88 155 125

¹ Jagr played also 5 "6 Nations Cup" games (8-8-16-4)

See also

External links

Preceded byDominik Hasek Winner of the Hart Trophy
1999 		Succeeded byChris Pronger
Preceded byRobert Lang Czech Golden Hockey Stick
2005 		Succeeded bynone
Preceded byDominik Hasek Czech Golden Hockey Stick
1999, 2000, 2002

2001 - Jiri Dopita

Succeeded byMilan Hejduk
Preceded byRoman Turek Czech Golden Hockey Stick
1995, 1996 		Succeeded byDominik Hasek
Preceded byRon Francis Pittsburgh Penguins Captains
1998-2001 		Succeeded byMario Lemieux
Preceded byWayne Gretzky Winner of the Art Ross Trophy
1995 		Succeeded byMario Lemieux
Preceded byMario Lemieux Winner of the Art Ross Trophy
1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 		Succeeded byJarome Iginla
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