Merciless time does not know pity even in relation to real legends. The famous at the age of 45 left the National Hockey League, and this time, apparently, for good. The season at Calgary turned out to be frankly unimportant for the Czech striker: Jagr was only able to sign a contract in the fall, and due to protracted negotiations, he was forced to miss the entire preseason, and all plans to demonstrate veteran prowess turned out to be crumpled due to injuries. 1 goal and 6 assists in 22 matches - this was the last overseas season for the 68th number, which was the last representative of hockey "good old" times.
The former giants Wayne and Mario left the stage a long time ago, the Detroit Russian Five died down and Scotty Bowman retired, Hasek and Brodo caught all their goals, went through lockout wars with varying success, formed and lived to see the KHL anniversary season, and Jagr played. However, there is no talk of ending his career yet - in his native Kladno, where he is the owner, he can continue to go on the ice for as long as he likes. But Jaromir always set himself the maximum and even unsolvable tasks, striving to do what seemed impossible. How impossible it is to imagine Jagr, who is demanding of himself, quietly “dusting” in the second Czech league.
Goals: 766 (3rd all-time)
Transfers: 1155 (5).
Points: 1921 (2).
Matches: 1733 (3).
2 Stanley Cups, 5 prizes for the best scorer, 3 trophies for the best player according to the hockey players themselves, 1 MVP of the season, 1 trophy for dedication to hockey.
The leadership of the “lights” acted harshly with Jaromir, but as honestly as possible, and Flames general manager Brad Treliving announced a possible break in relations a few weeks ago. The knee injury that bothered the Czech throughout the season turned out to be too serious for the veteran's body to withstand the most severe loads of the NHL. In accordance with the rules, Jagr was placed on a waver, which provoked a real fan flash mob on social networks: fans of various clubs practiced creating collages and demanded that Jagr take their favorite club for himself. The reality turned out to be very harsh: there was no interest in Jaromir in the NHL, and the option with Kladno was the only one possible.
NHL return possible
In theory, Jaromir could not go to Europe, but go to a farm club, as NHL rules stipulate, since Jagr's contract with Calgary will run until the end of the season. This would give the striker at least some chance of returning to the Flames, but both the striker himself and the Flames bosses have already thanked each other for their cooperation, which means the end of this story.
“Jagr's career speaks for itself. He is a legend in our sport and we are proud to have Jaromir playing for Calgary. Alas, he started the season too late, and chronic injuries did not allow him to play the way he wanted. In the short time that he spent at our club, Jaromir showed a remarkable professional approach and leadership skills,” said Brad Treliving. However, legally, Jagr's departure to Kladno looks like a loan, and the likelihood that Calgary will require the veteran to join them (for example, to increase the depth of the playoff roster) is not zero.
In addition, after July 1, when the free agent market opens, Jagr can again try his luck and offer his candidacy to the NHL clubs. The chances of a new job overseas look just microscopic, but Jaromir has repeatedly convinced the public that he is able to work miracles.
“There is nothing worse than a chronic injury. If the health problem persists, then you need to understand if Jagr needs all this. Only he himself knows how serious the problem is. Time flies, soon he will be 46 years old, and he is no longer as fast as before. I had a similar problem in the 2003/04 season when I played for Detroit. I was faced with the choice of ending my career or not, but I decided to have an operation on my groin, I was helped by a well-known physiotherapist. I'm back, and even in the NHL. But I was 39 years old, six years younger than Jagr. He didn't have a huge farewell game in this league, but that's not important for his career. His achievements speak for themselves,” another legendary Czech Dominik Hasek commented on the situation with Jaromir.
"I work to be happy"
“When you are young you know you can play for a long time. I appreciate every match in which I take part. And the more important the game, the better for me. I explain this to the youth, but they do not understand well. I say that I feel like a 70-year old man who is just trying to be alive and thanks heaven for every day that he can live on this earth. It's hard to fight a god,” Jagr said six years ago. He said, and immediately proved by personal example that it is difficult - it does not mean impossible.
Surprisingly, but true: Jaromir in the NHL was rarely evaluated as an independent serious figure. At first he was an assistant to Lemieux, but even after Mario ended his career, he remained a joker for many. Possessing incredible talent, he lived for pleasure: he drove cars, gambled, and spent money without hesitation. At the same time, he saved Pittsburgh from moving to another city when, in 1999, he almost single-handedly won a series of playoffs against the powerful Devils. Arriving in Russia, he contributed a lot to the development of the KHL, and after a difficult return to the National Hockey League, he became a real demon of training and regimen. Morning out on the ice, special weight skates, work in the gym, skating in a special heavy vest - Jagr treated hockey like a religion, becoming a model for many young players.
“It seems to me that I have reached that point in life when hard work only pleases you. Someone is happy that he has a day off, and I have the opposite. Work is the best thing that happened in my life. And I work just to be happy,” said Jaromir.
He was brilliant and funny, annoying and wise. He remained the one without whom hockey is simply impossible to imagine. He is Jaromir Jagr.
April 26, 2014, 02:49 pmJaromir Jagr (Czech Jaromír Jágr; February 15, 1972, Shmerov-Gnidusy village (now part of Kladno), Czechoslovakia) is an outstanding Czech hockey player. Role - right striker. In terms of points scored in NHL history, it shares 6th place with Steve Yzerman in the regular season and 5th place in the Stanley Cup playoffs, while being the most productive among active NHL hockey players in goals, points, assists both in the regular season and and in the playoffs. Jagr is regarded as one of the best Europeans in NHL history and one of the greatest players of all time. 
1991 and 1992 Stanley Cup Winner with the Pittsburgh Penguins
2013 Stanley Cup finalist with the Boston Bruins
Art Ross Trophy, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 (Pittsburgh Penguins)
Olympic champion, 1998 (team of the Czech Republic)
Ted Lindsay Award, 1999, 2000 (Pittsburgh Penguins) and 2006 (New York Rangers)
Hart Trophy, 1999 (Pittsburgh Penguins)
World Champion, 2005, 2010 (Team of the Czech Republic)
Winner of the European Champions Cup, 2005 (Avangard Omsk)
Bronze medalist of the Olympics, 2006 (team of the Czech Republic)
Member of the NHL All-Star game (10 times)
Member of the KHL All-Star Game (3 times)
Bronze medalist of the World Cup, 2004 (team of the Czech Republic)
Bronze medalist of the World Championship, 1990 (team of Czechoslovakia), 2011 (team of the Czech Republic)
Winner of the Continental Cup 2011 (Avangard Omsk)
Member of the Triple Gold Club since May 15, 2005 
Jaromir Jagr doesn't just want to play his next season in the NHL. The New Jersey Devils right winger, 42, expects to play until he is 50, even if it means his career ends at his home in the Czech Republic.
"I don't know where I will play, but I still want to play as long as I can stand on my feet," Jagr said. "Age is nothing to me. I'm not getting old, I don't know why. Probably, God should be asked about this."
Jagr ruins selfie)) 
Once Jagr came to the Czech Republic and said: “If I marry, then only a Czech. I don’t like American women. Or a feminist, or a lesbian, or a fool, or an ugly woman ...” A day later, this statement was learned in the USA, and crowds of female fans Jagr was bombarded with letters "Go to your place in Prague!" The conflict was settled by Jagr's mother, who explained to the press that her son had been misunderstood. 
For the first time, Jaromir took a stick in his hands in 1976, then he was 4 years old. HC Kladno, this is where Jagr spent his first season in 1988, in his first professional season he scored 8 goals and made 10 assists in 39 games. For a seventeen-year-old player, his 18 points was an excellent result.
NHL
Drafted 5th overall in the 1990 NHL Entry Draft by the Pittsburgh Penguins. Played in the National Hockey League from 1990 to 2008. Result in the first season: regular season (80 games) - 27 goals, 30 assists: playoffs (24 games), 3 goals, 10 assists). And in the second one too - with more outstanding indicators: regular season - 70 matches, 32 goals, 37 assists; playoffs: 21 games, 11 goals, 13 assists.
After that, Jagr would no longer win team trophies as part of Pittsburgh, but he would become the top scorer of the NHL regular season five times - the Art Ross Trophy was awarded to him in 1995, 1998-2001.
In the summer of 2001, he is traded for Chris Beach, Michal Civic, Ross Lupachuk from Washington, and he gets into the capital team. One of the newspapers covered his exchange like this: "Jagr was exchanged for three bags of pucks." And as it turned out later, the newspaper was not far from the truth.
On July 11, 2001, he was traded to the Washington Capitals. On January 23, 2004, he was traded to the New York Rangers. Winner of numerous NHL prizes and awards - five times the Art Ross Trophy, three times the Lester Pearson Award and once the Hart Trophy.
Superleague and KHL
During the NHL lockout in the 2004/2005 season, he played in the Russian Super League for Avangard Omsk. In January, he won the European Champions Cup with the club, scoring a golden goal in overtime against Karpyat.
On July 4, 2008, he signed a full-fledged contract with the Hawks under the 2 + 1 system. In 2009 and 2010, he became the best sniper and top scorer of the club, losing this title in 2011 to his teammate R. Chervenka. On January 28, 2011, in a match with Barys, Jagr scored 200 and 201 points for Avangard. At that time, Jaromir had 205 games, 88 goals (including two hat-tricks) and 113 assists.
In all four seasons spent at Avangard, Jagr scored 93 goals and took fifth place in the list of Avangard's top scorers in the top division.
Return to the NHL
After the end of the contract with Avangard in 2011, Jagr took a long pause in search of continuing his career. Although Jagr was offered a contract extension in Omsk, there were rumors that the player wanted to return to the NHL. Interest in the player was confirmed by the hockey player's native Pittsburgh Penguins club, which offered $2 million. for the season. Unexpectedly for many, on July 1, 2011, Jagr signed an agreement with another club from Pennsylvania, the principal rival of the Penguins - the Philadelphia Flyers. In this club, Jagr's agent, Petr Svoboda, played five seasons as a defender. The contract amount was 3.3 million dollars, the contract term is one season. The KHL wished Jaromir success in the new club and thanked him "for the excellent game and promotion of hockey in the KHL during the three years he played in the Avangard team."
Awards
- Stanley Cup winner, 1991 and 1992 with the Pittsburgh Penguins
- Art Ross Trophy, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 (Pittsburgh Penguins)
- Olympic champion, 1998 (team of the Czech Republic)
- Ted Lindsay Award, 1999, 2000 (Pittsburgh Penguins) and 2006 (New York Rangers)
- Hart Trophy, 1999 (Pittsburgh Penguins)
- World Champion, 2005, 2010 (Team of the Czech Republic)
- Winner of the European Champions Cup, 2005 (Avangard, Russia)
- Bronze medalist of the Olympics, 2006 (team of the Czech Republic)
- Member of the NHL All-Star game (10 times)
- Member of the KHL All-Star Game (3 times)
- Bronze medalist of the World Cup, 2004 (team of the Czech Republic)
- Bronze medalist of the World Championship, 1990 (team of Czechoslovakia), 2011 (team of the Czech Republic)
- Winner of the Continental Cup 2011 ("Vanguard")
Statistics
Club
International
№ 68
Jagr has a negative view of the communists, whose actions led to the suppression of the Prague Spring in 1968. When the ATS troops entered Czechoslovakia, his relatives suffered. It is in memory of those events that Jagr plays at number 68.
In an interview with the official NHL website, Jaromir Jagr said: “I don’t wear the number 68 sweater because I have a bad attitude towards Russians. No, I took number 68 because of my dislike for the communists. These are two different things. Approximately the same thing would have been asked of me if I had taken the 45th number. Everyone would think that this is a sign of disrespect for the Germans who started the second world war, and this is just my protest against the Nazis. I took number 68 because of my grandfather."
- Jaromir starred in one of the episodes of the film "Brother 2", where he is clearly visible when the hero Danila Bagrov meets Dmitry Gromov on the hockey rink.
- In 2005, during the NHL lockout in Omsk, Jagr converted to Orthodoxy.
- On October 28, 2010, as part of the Independence Day celebrations, Czech President Vaclav Klaus awarded Jagr with the Order of Merit. Previously, only three Czech hockey players received this award - Augustin Bubnik, Ivan Glinka and Dominik Hasek.
- He was the flag bearer for his country's national team at the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
- In 2010, he became one of the largest donors to the Czech Civic Democratic Party, donating 5.6 million crowns.
Career Jaromir Jagr
Jaromir Jagr - the most famous Czech hockey player and one of the most successful hockey players in the world. Thousands of fans around the world follow his career, and thousands of women would dream of being in the place of the girl of this brutal handsome man.
Jaromir was born on February 15, 1972 in the Czechoslovak town of Kladno. At the age of four, his parents brought Jaromir to a hockey club at a local club, and since then Jagr's whole life has been connected with hockey.
Already in his first professional season in 1988 at HC Kladno, Jaromir showed simply remarkable results, receiving 18 rating points. In 1990, Jaromir Jagr moved to the United States to play for the Pittsburgh Penguins NHL team. The hockey player also shows excellent results there in the first season, scoring 27 goals, and in the second 32 goals in 70 matches.
In total, Jaromir Jagr played for the Pittsburgh Penguins for 11 years, having managed to become the NHL's top scorer 5 times. And in 2001, he was exchanged for 3 hockey players from the Washington Capitals team. Journalists then wrote that " Jagr traded for 3 bags of pucks". And they were not far from the truth.
In 2004, Jagr moved from the Washington Capitals to the New York Rangers. In the 2004 season, there was a break between games in the NHL, and at this time Jaromir plays Avangard Zaom. In 2008, Jaromir signed a full-fledged contract with Avangard. Jaromir spent 4 seasons at Avangard and during this time he scored 93 goals and took 5th place in the list of Avangard's Best Snipers.
In 2011, Jagr's contract with Avangard ended and Jaromir had to choose the way forward. Avangard offered Jagr to extend the contract, but the hockey player was thinking about returning to the NHL. July 1, 2011 Jaromir Jagr signed with the Philadelphia Flyers- a rival to his "native" Pittsburgh Penguins. The contract amount was 3.3 million dollars.
Where is Jaromir Jagr playing now?
A year later, in 2012, Jaromir began to play for the club "Dallas Stars". On March 30, 2013, in a game between Dallas and Minnesota, Jagr made his 1,000th assist in his NHL career.
Personal life of Jaromir Jagr
At the end of 2012, the Internet community was shocked by the news that Jaromir Jagr broke up with his model girlfriend of Ukrainian origin Inna Pugaykova. I met Inna Jaromir for more than six years and everyone was already talking about their upcoming wedding. And here is the news. Jaromir commented on this event in the following way:
“We just agreed that it would be better to leave and everyone will go their own way, will live their own lives.”
Among his awards there are two Stanley Cups, the "gold" of the Olympics, as well as two sets of gold medals of the World Championships. Thus, the whole life of our today's hero turned into a long series of victories. Jaromir Jagr has always been the best on the hockey rink, and therefore it is especially interesting to talk about his life and fate.
Early years, childhood and Jaromir Jagr's family, early career
Jaromir Jagr was born on February 15, 1972 in the small village of Shmerov-Gnidusy, which today is already part of the rather large Czech city of Kladno.Our today's hero began his sports career right here - at the hockey school of the Czech club HK Kladno of the same name. In this context, it is worth noting that already at an early age, a powerful young guy with an excellent wrist throw stood out favorably against his peers. He was one of the best on the hockey rink, and therefore was always considered one of the rising stars of the Kladno school.
As a result, the player spent his first season in the Czech Extraliga already at the age of sixteen. Despite such a young age, the talented young hockey player always seemed to be a real hero on the hockey rink, and therefore he always appeared exclusively in shock units. The trust of the coaches, as well as the ardent support of relatives and friends, allowed Jaromir Jagr to show very good performance in his debut season.
In 39 games of the regular season, our today's hero scored eight goals and scored another ten assistant points. This indicator allowed the hockey player to rise to the first attacking line next season, and also to establish himself as the main hope of the entire club.
It is very curious that, despite his “ramming” power, Jaromir Jagr has always been a real gentleman on the ice. What is the fact that for the entire 1989/1990 season the talented striker did not earn a single (!) Penalty minute.
Two successful seasons in the club of the Czech Extraliga allowed Jaromir Jagr to make a serious statement about himself, and therefore subsequently the bright young forward became a tasty morsel for all the best NHL clubs. Overseas scouts often appeared at many games of HC Kladno, and therefore at a certain moment it became clear that the club, lacking stars from the sky, would not be able to keep a talented pupil for a long time.
Jagr's first goal
In the end, it all happened. In 1990, Jaromir Jagr was drafted by the Pittsburgh Penguins NHL team under the overall fifth (!) Number. Such a high draft number indicated that the Penguins were seriously counting on the Czech player. And Jaromir in the end fully justified the trust placed in him.
Star Trek hockey player Jaromir Jagr
In his very first season in the National Hockey League, our today's hero managed to win one of the main trophies of the hockey world - the Stanley Cup. Jaromir Jagr was honored to lift the main NHL cup over his head at the end of the next season. Subsequently, despite a confident game, the Czech striker never won this trophy again, but he became the best “sniper” five times in the regular season.Subsequently, our today's hero continued to perform brightly as part of other clubs. Washington Capitals, New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers, Avangard Omsk - Jaromir Jagr achieved very good results as part of each of these teams. His trophies include the Hart Trophy, three Ted Lindsay Awards (most valuable player awards). In addition, during his performances in the NHL, our today's hero was ten times included in the symbolic team for the All-Star game of the championship. Three times Jaromir Jagr also played in the All-Star game of the Continental Hockey League.
Jaromir Jagr
The talented striker also played a lot of bright matches in the Czech Republic (and Czechoslovakia) national team. Among his awards are the "gold" of the Nagano Olympics, as well as two sets of gold medals won at the Austrian and German world championships. For most of his career, Jaromir Jagr was the captain and also one of the brightest players in his national team.
A lot of abandoned pucks, as well as the highest level of professionalism, made the hockey player a national hero of his country. At the 2010 Winter Olympics, the player was given the high honor of carrying the national flag of the Czech Republic at the opening ceremony of the competition. In addition, in the autumn of the same year, the talented athlete was awarded one of the most honorary state orders of this country - the Order of Merit. The president of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus, personally decided to present the award to the hockey player, who has become a model of behavior on the hockey rink for many years.
It is noteworthy that throughout his career, our today's hero wore a jersey with the number "68" in solidarity with the victims of the "Prague Spring". Because of this, the player was often mistakenly accused of hating the Russians. However, in one of his interviews, the hockey player dispelled these myths, saying that he hates not Russians, but communists.
Jaromir Jagr at present
Currently, despite the very respectable age (Jagr was 41 at the time of writing), the talented Czech striker continues, as before, to play at the highest level. At the moment, the player defends the colors of the New Jersey Devils, and also remains the undisputed leader of the Czech national team. 
Currently, Jaromir Jagru is ranked seventh in the list of the most productive players in the history of the NHL regular season. In the list of the most "scoring" hockey players of the Stanley Cup playoffs, our today's hero is in fifth place.