Jaromir Jagr: Keeping his Word
KHL.ru continues its series of articles about players and coaches who have become league’s legends. Today, the talk is about Czech forward Jaromir Jagr – a star of the KHL’s first three seasons.
Arrival
In the spring of 2008, as everyone recalls, the creation of a new league, the KHL, was announced in Russia. From the very beginning, it attracted significant attention on both sides of the Ocean. Starting in March, various events were held for different informational reasons – division draws, logo presentations, and press conferences by the management. Three foreign teams joined the KHL – Dinamo Minsk, Dinamo Riga, and Barys. Clubs invited high-level masters, bringing well-known players from overseas and Europe, like Chris Simon, Josef Vasicek, Branko Radivojevic, Stefan Ruzicka, Tomas Rolinek, Tony Martensson, Niko Kapanen, Marcel Hossa, Andrei Zyuzin, Sergei Brylin, and many others. But the real sensation happened on July 4th. Avangard announced the signing of Jaromir Jagr. After this, the entire hockey world was left speculating with their mouths open about what else to expect from the KHL and its clubs.
Jagr was already familiar with the Russian championship and Omsk. He played for Avangard in the 2004-2005 season during the NHL lockout. Avangard fans will likely never forget the decisive quarterfinal game against Metallurg. Playing on the road, the Hawks were down 2:3 but tied things up in the very last minute. In OT, Jagr took the puck from his goal and, rushing through the entire rink, scored one of the most memorable goals that those fans will ever remember.
One cannot forget how Jagr scored three goals in Moscow against CSKA in one of his first games in the Russian league. And what about the European Champions Cup? It was Jagr who netted the OT game-winner in the finals against Karpat Oulu in January 2005 in St. Petersburg. Jagr provided many memorable moments to Russian hockey fans that season. Everyone perfectly understood the caliber of the player coming to play in the KHL. Literally, there couldn’t be a better advertisement for the League.
Jaromir Jagr
2005, 2010 Gold medal
1990, 2011 Bronze medal at the World Championship.
1998 Gold medal
2006 Bronze medal at the Winter Olympic Games.
181 games, 165 (73+92) points.
2005 Membership in the Triple Gold Club.
1991, 1992 Stanley Cup wins.
1995, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2005-2008, 2011 Czech player of the year.
2009-2011 KHL All-Star Game.
07.11.2004 Signs with Avangard.
16.01.2005 European Champions Cup title with Avangard, netting the GWG against Karpat Oulu.
04.07.2008 Second stint in Omsk.
In 2005, after the lockout ended, Jagr inked a contract with the New York Rangers. In his first season, he broke the club records for the most single-season goals (54) and points (123). However, in the next season, the Czech player scored 96 points, and the following year, “only” 71. “He’s getting old,” experts, journalists, and fans started saying. At the same time, the Rangers inked to a contract the former Vancouver Canucks’ captain and star Swede Markus Naslund, who was almost the same age as Jagr. After a speech by the general manager, it became clear that the Czech star would no longer play for the Rangers.
According to Jagr himself, this is how he ended up at Avangard for the second time:
“During the lockout, I played for half a year in Siberia, in Omsk, and I really liked it there. The Omsk Region’s governor liked me very much. When he found out that I was becoming a free agent after the season, he sent Avangard’s general manager to visit me in New York. He said that the governor wanted me to go play in Russia. And I told him, ‘If I won’t sign back with the Rangers, I promise I’ll go to Russia.’”
According to Jagr, because of his age at the time (36), the Rangers offered him only a one-year deal, while he wanted to sign a two-year contract. Soon, Edmonton approached the forward. But he kept his word.
“If you promise something, you have to follow through. And I went to Russia. If I had moved to Edmonton, I would have earned much more.”
A Star Without Medals
Naturally, Jagr became the face of the KHL. A critical player for the league, but not the only one.
On the second game day of the first KHL season, a match attracted heightened attention – Ak Bars with Morozov and Zaripov against Avangard with Jagr. Kazan’s top line scored three goals. The Czech responded with an assist. The hosts won 4:2. Thus began the second Russian segment of Jagr’s career, which was full of various events.
On Oct 13, Avangard played against Vityaz in Chekhov. At the very beginning of the game, 19-year-old Alexei Cherepanov opened the scoring. Jagr added two more goals. But few remember these details, including the final score (the hosts achieved a 5:4 win). Cherepanov’s death overshadowed not only that match but much more. Jagr was friends with the young forward, treating him like a younger brother. He took his death hard.
“Alexei’s death is roughly the same as losing parents, a wife, or a child. Such a strong blow.”
After Cherepanov’s death, Avangard’s game began to fall apart before everyone’s eyes. However, that season ended with a kind of miraculous transformation for the Hawks, beating Severstal by just one point and making it to the playoffs from the last spot. Avangard then knocked out the regular season champion Salavat Yulaev in the first round. In the second round, they almost defeated the eventual triumphant, Ak Bars. In the fifth, decisive game, Jagr scored a goal and had a helper. Avangard was up 2:1, but with 15 seconds left in the third frame, the team lost the victory and conceded again in OT.
03.09.2008 First KHL game.
10.01.2009 Led Team Jagr at the first-ever KHL All-Star Game.
14.09.2009 First KHL hat-trick, against Dinamo Riga.
18.02.2011 Continental Cup triumph with Avangard.
21.03.2011 Last KHL game.
23.10.2020 Visited Moscow for Avangard’s 70th birthday, attending the Hawks’ game against Ak Bars.
In his debut season of the KHL, Jagr failed to score more than two goals in a single game, but in the second season, he achieved two hat-tricks — on Sep 14 in Riga and on Oct 7 in a home game against Barys. In those games, Avangard won 5:4 and 6:3, respectively. In January, Jagr scored in five consecutive games, netting seven goals during that stretch — the longest goal-scoring streak for Jagr in the KHL. However, the team once again failed to achieve significant results, losing 0-3 to Neftekhimik in the opening round of the playoffs.
In his third KHL season, Jagr faced his former Czech national team partner Dominik Hasek, who was playing for Spartak. Jagr was unable to score against Hasek in Omsk but managed to do so in Moscow. That season, Avangard won the regular season but was unable to advance beyond the first round of the Gagarin Cup playoffs, losing in seven games to Metallurg Magnitogorsk.
Jagr for All of Europe
Despite that Avangard failed to achieve significant success with Jagr, the Czech player was the team’s top scorer in both the regular seasons and the playoffs during the first two years. In the third season, he was surpassed by Roman Cervenka in the first stage, and by Alexander Popov, Alexander Perezhogin, and Cervenka again in the elimination stage.
The first KHL All-Star Games were held in the format of Team Jagr versus Team Yashin. Jagr’s team won all three games — in Moscow’s Red Square, Minsk, and St. Petersburg — with scores of 7:6, 11:8, and 18:16. In the first game, Jagr recorded two assists, in the second he had 1 goal and 3 assists, and in the third, he formed a hat-trick and added 2 helpers.
The KHL and Avangard gave fans not only in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Latvia the chance to see Jagr play live but also people from other European countries. After returning from overseas, Jagr decided to resume his international career, having last played for the national team at the Turin Olympics in 2006. By that time, Jagr had already achieved significant success with the national team — winning the Olympics in 1998 and the World Championship in 2005, following his first season with Avangard.
Jagr participated in the World Championships after all three seasons spent in Russia. In 2010, he became a two-time world champion. In the final, the Czechs defeated Team Russia (2:1), who had arrived at the tournament almost at full strength and had won all their matches before the final. The following year, Jagr added another bronze medal at the World Championships. In the last game of the tournament — the third-place game — Czechia again defeated Russia 7:4.
Now 52 years old, Jagr continues to play for his hometown team, Kladno, of which he is the owner. In fact, he might have retired last season but stepped back onto the ice due to a virus outbreak that left the team short of players. After the championship ended, he announced that he might play in the next season as well.
“I still enjoy hockey. Although I am disappointed with my current level. It’s not what I am used to. On the other hand, there is an advantage for me as an owner—I am always inside the team and know exactly what is happening.”
It’s simply wonderful that such a legend has left a mark in KHL history.
KHL.ru dossier
Born on Feb 15, 1972, in Kladno, Czechoslovakia.
Playing career: 1988-1990, 1994, 2004, 2012, 2018 – today – Kladno (Czechia), 1990-2001 – Pittsburgh Penguins (NHL), 1994 – Bolzano (Italy), 1994 – Schalke (Germany 2), 2001-2004 – Washington Capitals (NHL), 2004, 2005-2008 – New York Rangers (NHL), 2004-2005, 2008-2011 – Avangard, 2011-2012 – Philadelphia Flyers (NHL), 2013 – Dallas Stars, Boston Bruins (NHL), 2013-2015 – New Jersey Devils (NHL), 2015-2017 – Florida Panthers (NHL), 2017-2018 – Calgary Flames (NHL).
Achievements: Gold (1998) and bronze (2006) medalist at the Olympic Games, gold (2005, 2010) and bronze (1990, 2011) medalist at the World Championships, Stanley Cup winner (1991, 1992), European Champions Cup winner (2005).
