By Jared Clinton, Features writer
In 2011, when Jaromir Jagr sought
to return to the NHL from his years in the wilderness – or the KHL, as
it’s more commonly known – a reunion with the Pittsburgh Penguins seemed
not only on the table but a logical career capstone for the
then-39-year-old hockey icon.
Drafted fifth overall by the
Penguins in 1990, Jagr had risen from precocious talent emerging from
behind the recently fallen Iron Curtain to a big-league superstar and
Hart Trophy winner. And while he’d first left the Penguins a decade
earlier – a largely financially driven departure backdropped by an
organization that was, at the time, on the brink of bankruptcy – a new
day had dawned in Pittsburgh. Sidney Crosby’s arrival, paired with that
of Evgeni Malkin, Marc-Andre Fleury and Kris Letang, had seen the
Penguins return to past glory and become an NHL powerhouse. The stars,
seemingly, had aligned.
As
free agency approached, though, the Penguins weren’t the only team in
the mix for Jagr’s services. Reports suggested the Detroit Red Wings
were in the hunt. So, too, were the Montreal Canadiens. But when Jagr
finally put pen to paper for his NHL return, he did so, somewhat
stunningly, with the Philadelphia Flyers.
In the minds of some
Pittsburgh faithful, it was a betrayal. Jagr was a former face of the
franchise, yet he had spurned the Penguins for their in-state rivals,
the Flyers. When he met with the media following his signing, Jagr
addressed the situation. “If the Penguins feel like I did something
wrong or something bad, I cannot change their minds,” Jagr said. “If I
hurt somebody, I apologize. I didn’t mean it, but what people have to
understand is that it’s my life, and I want to make the choice.”
There
is a world, however, in which Jagr’s signing in Philadelphia, not
Pittsburgh, might very well have marked his return to where his NHL
career began. That it didn’t, perhaps, all comes down to “philosophical
differences,” as Les Bowen wrote in the Dec. 1, 1990, issue of The
Hockey News, between former Flyers president Jay Snider and GM Bobby
Clarke.
As the story goes, it was only months before the 1990
draft that Clarke was suddenly and fairly unceremoniously given his
walking papers by Philadelphia, for whom he’d been GM since the
beginning of 1984-85. Though the firing came on the heels of the Flyers
missing the post-season for the first time in 17 years, what seemed to
contribute most to the decision to relieve Clarke of his duties was that
he and Snider differed “on the direction of the team,” as the latter
said at the time. The prevailing notion was that Snider was interested
in a full-scale rebuild, whereas Clarke was not. So, how did Clarke’s
firing potentially alter the course of Jagr’s career and the 1990 draft?
Throughout
the season and in the weeks and months leading up to the 1990 selection
process, much of the hubbub centered around Owen Nolan, Petr Nedved,
Keith Primeau and Mike Ricci, a quartet of budding young players who
were each believed to have the potential to be big-league stars. And
among prospect hounds, there was plenty of debate and conjecture about
who among the foursome was most well-equipped to step in and elevate an
NHL franchise.
Some
scouts, however, considered Jagr to be the most gifted of the bunch,
though it was considered “a minority viewpoint,” according to The Hockey
News’ 1990 Future Watch issue. As it turns out, among the most vocal of
that minority may have been Clarke, who was noted as having proclaimed
Jagr “the best player available.” The excerpt regarding Jagr went on to
note that it “remains to be seen if the scouting staff feels the same as
Clarke.” The answer came on draft day, when the Flyers stepped up to
the podium and selected Ricci, the final available member of the draft’s
supposed preeminent prospects after Nolan, Nedved and Primeau had
already been taken by the Quebec Nordiques, Vancouver Canucks and
Detroit Red Wings, respectively.
In fairness, and in isolation,
choosing Ricci was not entirely misguided. He was, for much of the
buildup to the 1990 draft, considered the odds-on favorite to be
selected first overall. In the season prior to his draft year, Ricci
finished 10th in OHL scoring. He followed it up by finishing third in
1989-90, behind Primeau and Paul DiPietro but one spot ahead of Nolan.
And even if Ricci didn’t become an offensive superstar, he did evolve
into one of the NHL’s premier two-way forwards. He finished in the top
four in Selke Trophy voting three consecutive seasons during his prime.
He wasn’t a slouch offensively, either. He registered more than 200
goals and more than 600 points in a career that finished one outing shy
of 1,100 games.
Ricci ultimately played a pivotal role in Flyers
history and NHL lore. He was a major part of the monumental trade
package that Philadelphia sent to Quebec to pry a discontented Eric
Lindros from the Nordiques. The deal was finalized in June 1992,
coincidentally only weeks after Clarke returned to the Flyers as senior
vice-president. (Here’s something to ponder: would Philadelphia have
pursued the Lindros trade had they selected Jagr in 1990? If so, would
Jagr, like Ricci, have been part of the swap?)
The fact remains,
though, that none of Ricci, Nolan, Nedved, Primeau, nor frankly any
other skater taken in the 1990 draft, is in the same stratosphere as
Jagr. Each of those who went before Jagr scored at least 200 goals and
600 points. Others, such as Keith Tkachuk and Peter Bondra, can count
themselves among the brotherhood of 500-goal scorers. Tkachuk, as well
as Doug Weight, also joined Jagr as millennium men; all three scored at
least 1,000 points. The 1990 draft has seen two of its players inducted
into the Hall of Fame: Sergei Zubov and Martin Brodeur. (There’s another
deep retrospective to be written about the latter being taken 20th
overall and as the second goalie off the board in 1990.)
Perhaps
only Gordie Howe stands ahead of Jagr in sustained excellence and
career longevity. While Jagr departed the NHL for the final time as a
45-year-old following 2017-18 – that’s seven years younger than Howe,
who turned 52 in his final campaign – consider that Jagr’s big-league
career continued past those of any player selected in any of the five drafts that followed his own.
And
if Jagr’s two distinct NHL tenures are taken by themselves, his first
(1,273 games played) is the second-longest among his entire draft class,
and his second (460 GP) would outrank all but 40 players. Maybe most
jarring is the fact that more than half of those taken in the first
round of the 2008 draft, most of whom were mere months old when the 1990
draft took place, had their playing days come to a close before Jagr.
But
Jagr will not outlast any others. He has said 2024-25, his seventh as
player-owner of Czech outfit Kladno, will be his last. With that, the
final member of the 1990 draft class will skate off into the sunset. And
though Jagr ultimately began his big-league career as a Penguin and not
a Flyer, his journey took him across the NHL – yes, to Philadelphia,
but to nine franchises in all. By the time he departed, for the second
and final time, Jagr had become beloved league-wide, and he’s now set to
retire as a legend, an icon and a soon-to-be first-ballot Hall of
Famer. That’s worthy of a salute.
This article
appeared in our 2025 Draft Preview issue. Our cover story focuses on
the Erie Otters' star defenseman and top draft prospect Matthew
Schaefer, who has excelled despite the personal losses of his past. We
also include features on other top prospects, including Michael Misa and
more. In
addition, we give our list of the top-100 prospects heading into the
2025 NHL draft.
You can get it in print for free when you subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/Free today. All subscriptions include complete access to more than 76 years of articles at The Hockey News Archive.
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