John Dellapina of the New York Daily News reports that Rangers General Manager Glen Sather hasn't been in contact with Jaromir Jagr about a contract extension, raising the possibility that the Czech winger might opt to sign with Omsk-Avangard of the KHL instead. Fair enough, but what really caught my eye was this passage, which has to be read to be believed:
Not only can Jagr sign with Omsk-Avangard at any time, there seems to be little to be gained by making him sit and wonder whether the Rangers want him back. His personal experience (see: Washington 2000-2004) is that things don't go well when he's playing for a team that doesn't fully believe in him.Excuse me? Granted, by the end of the 2003-04 NHL season, the Caps, who at that point were desperate to find any team at all to pawn Jagr off on, had ceased believing in him. But before then, the Caps did anything and everything in their power to make sure he was comfortable both on and off the ice in Washington.
That would include importing players like Michael Nylander and Robert Lang who were thought to be a better fit with Jagr's style of play. Recall, of course, that the team signed these players to large contracts, which meant the salary budget simply wasn't available to buttress other needs, namely an aging blue line.
Of course, the biggest reason the salary budget was strained, and continued to be strained even after Jagr was shipped out of town, was the huge 7-year, $77 million contract the team signed him to before he ever stepped on the ice in a Capitals uniform. One would think that a financial commitment of that size and scope would have led Jagr to conclude that the Caps believed in him.
The horrible truth: The Caps did believe in Jagr. Until of course, they learned the hard way that they couldn't believe in him anymore. Here endeth the lesson.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-17-2008 @ 2:42PM
J.P. said...
Spot. Friggin'. On.
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6-17-2008 @ 10:33PM
ck said...
What's a "salary budget"? Misleading statement -- there was no cap then. Not to mention the Caps' pathetic coaches who haven't had any success since, and a couple who can't even get a job. Bad goaltending might have had something to do with their lack of success as well. The Caps barely squeaked in to the playoffs this year. Management always prefers to blame a player instead of themselves. Management hands out the big contracts -- why is it the players' fault if management can't manage their money?
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6-19-2008 @ 6:11AM
claytor said...
lmao@ck covering mullet mcqueens clowny ass.
dude...they gave that goof 80 MILLION.
the damn salary cap NOW is like 50-55 million....for the WHOLE team.
maybe now youll see just how overblown jagrs talents were, and the belief structure the caps had in him. over the course of three seasons, they even brought in all these "character guys" that jagr used to play with (key note here, they OBVIOUSLY werent winning in pittsburgh, but somehow, according to the mullet god of hockey, they would in d.c.?), in hopes he wouldnt feel uncomfortable on ice.
forget stocking the team with proper talent.
forget developing young guns who mightve been better players than robert lame, er lang.
no, instead d.c. pretty much hosted a crap hockey party for jagr and his friends, at the fans and teams expense.
this jerkoff essentially held that team hostage, and whats worse, he did it even to the point when he was traded, strongarming the caps into a trade that will never equal the value of this clownshoe's time in d.c.
i hope he leaves, i really despise jagr, and for the whole five totally awesome seasons (100 point years in 17 CAREER SEASONS..) he had, man! he wasnt worth it. to d.c. to pittsburgh. to the nhl.
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6-26-2008 @ 1:38AM
Brown72 said...
What the heck are you talking about??? Washington's coaches were totally fascinated with a doofus named Halpern and a crotchety old fart named Bondra. Not to mention the fact that they were banking on Rollie the Olie Pollie was going to be the next Marty Brodeur. They were sucking up tons of ice time and didn't do a thing for the team. The only people to blame in the whole "Jagr made Washington bad" fiasco is ownership and management. They put all their eggs in one basket and forgot that teams not players win the cup. Pittsburgh did the same thing. I mean, giving Jagr a winger like Rob Brown is definitely NOT a sign of commitment. Washington picking up Jags was like putting a band aid on the Titanic. The ship was already sinking. They were a "trap" team with players that thought it meant they were supposed to wait around for fuzzy animals to come out onto the rink before they moved. They were absolutely pathetic. When you have players on your team that are minus by double digits, you have an issue and it has nothing to do with your leading scorer who is on the positive side of things. As for motivational issues, that's the coaches job to sort those things out and learn how to motivate everyone individually as well as a team.
What escaped Washington and Pittsburgh, and needs to be remembered by New York is that you have to build your team around your best players. Jagr is their best player. They need to get some people in that can take the defensive pressure off from him so he can work his magic. Don't get enamored with "character" guys like Avery. They are a dime a dozen in the league.
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6-29-2008 @ 12:53AM
TabooDiva said...
Jagr WAS welcomed when he left Pittsburgh for Washington. However, Washington coaches were of a defensive bent, and Jagr is a decidedly non-defensive player,which cause an early end to the honeymoon. When you have a tight defensive game, you cannot expect a run-and-gun player like Jagr to thrive or even survive. That, in a nutshell, was the issue in Washington. It boggles my mind that team officials can't tell when a player is a bad fit for their system. It is also amazing how many sportscasters and writers are unable to recognize this.
I also "love" it when writers and fans attack players like Jagr for situations like that in Washington without considering the appropriateness of the system to the player. Much of what I read about Jagr is more opinion than fact, and the writer will grasp any tenuous straw as proof of their opinions.
lmao@ck said "dude...they gave that goof 80 MILLION." So what? What Jagr was offered as a contract was what the market at the time said was reasonable. I personally don't think any entertainer- sports or actor or singer- should be paid that much, but they are. That's capitalism. Deal with it. And that isn't close to the worst story in sport salaries. Here's another one from hockey for you: The Pens paid Mario his full salary for years he didn't play and didn't officially retire. The money he was "owed" by the Pens was that un-earned salary and was the basis for giving Mario the team. Mario's unearned salary (and I'm sorry, if you don't work but you get paid, that is an unearned salary) was one of the major factors in pushing the Pens into bankruptcy.
And, as it was already pointed out, the Capitals still aren't playing great hockey and barely made the playoffs. They don't seem particularly talented at picking out the right players for their system. Or, if you prefer, they don't seem particularly talented at picking the right coaches for their players.
Also note: New York's last 2 play off runs were lead by Jagr, no matter if you want to acknowledge it or not. Avery and Gomez were virtually invisible against the Pens in the play-offs. Yet Jagr was one of the high scorers for the playoffs. Hmmmm. Maybe Jagr CAN actually play.
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