At the age of 52 years, after 24 seasons in the NHL, Jaromir Jagr is still playing professional ice hockey. Jagr wore 9 different sweaters in his 24 year NHL career that ended in the 2017-’18 season skating for the Calgary Flames. The Hall of Fame of many of these professional sports leagues come calling after 5 years of retirement. Jagr ranks 4th all-time in goals scored in the NHL, making him a sure first ballot to the Hall of Fame. The word retire is not in Jagr’s dictionary as he continues to play the game and professionally for his hometown team in the Czech Republic in the ELH Czech Extraliga. Jagr is averaging 15 minutes per contest in the ELH as he provides veteran leadership and is the owner of the Rytiri Kladno which is the team he rooted for growing up in the Czech Republic. Even being the owner he still has that wicked slap shot. He’s still putting the biscuit in the basket. Finally one of his former teams in the NHL will be retiring his number 68 jersey this weekend in Pittsburgh, where he played with the Penguins 11 seasons.

In 24 seasons in the NHL, Jaromir racked up 766 goals playing in 1,733 games. He dished out 1,155 assists which gives him the grand total of 1,921 points in his NHL career. He is an 8x all-star. He helped the Pittsburgh Penguins win back to back cups in 1991 and ’92. In 24 seasons in the NHL, his team made the playoffs 18 of those seasons. He played in 208 additional playoff games in the NHL where he scored 78 more goals & dished out another 123 assists to rack up 201 points. He suited up for the Penguins, Rangers (4 seasons), Capitals (3 seasons), Panthers (3 seasons), Devils (2 seasons), and then one season each for the Flyers, Bruins, Stars, and the Flames. The hockey legends ahead of him in goals features Wayne Gretzky number 1 with (894), Alex Ovechkin number 2 (836), Gordie Howe number 3 (801), and then Jagr 4th with (766). Jagr could have added more to his total as he left the NHL in 2008 and played in the KHL Kontinental Hockey League for three seasons.

The KHL is the Soviet Union Hockey league in which Jaromir Jagr played for Avangard Omsk. He scored 66 regular season goals, dishing out 79 assists in three seasons. He scored 7 goals with 13 assists in the playoffs. In 2011, Jagr came back to the states, played for the Philadelphia Flyers, and would play until 2018 in the NHL with multiple teams. After the NHL, he has played in the ELH where he scored his 1,100th professional goal last February. Jagr has played 37 professional seasons on the ice which is by far the most in the history of the game. He has played in over 2,000 games. He is the most productive European player to lace up the skates. I should mention that he played for his own country’s National teams as well. In 2017, he was named to the list of 100 greatest NHL players of all-time. At the age of 45, he became the oldest player in the history of the NHL to get a hat trick in a game.

I remember the 1992 finals when the Blackhawks faced the Pittsburgh Penguins for the entire enchilada. The Blackhawks had won 11 straight games as they made it to the finals for the first time since 1973. It was the first time in my life & I was only in high school at the time seeing my home team Blackhawks make it this far. The guys wearing the Indian head sweaters that year meant the roster was stacked. We had Michael Goulet who was a veteran savvy player who had been one top players in the games for years. We scored goals with a young Jeremy Roenick. We had Steve Larmer. The captain, Dirk Graham. Our enforcer, Stu Grimson, a guy I wouldn’t want to meet in dark alley being on his list. The Blackhawks had a stud goalie in Eddie Belfour. In game one of the series versus Pittsburgh, the Blackhawks led 4-1 only to see it disappear. Jaromir Jagr then put on a clinic and made the Blackhawks look like a minor league team. Obviously with the help of the great Mario Lemieux, the Penguins erased that lead in game 1. Pittsburgh won that game and ended up sweeping the Blackhawks in the series. The Blackhawks would never get back to the finals with that loaded team and have to wait until Patrick Kane came into the league to get back to that moment.

The Pittsburgh Penguins only have retired two jerseys in franchise history. The Great Mario Lemieux’s number 66 hangs from the rafters. Lemieux played 17 seasons in the NHL all with Pittsburgh as he scored 690 goals. Then the Penguins retired number 21, that of Michel Briere, a young promising hockey star who’s life was way too short. Briere would die from suffering a head injury from a car accident in the 1970’s. He was only 21 years old when he passed. Jaromir Jagr played 806 games for the Penguins and scored 439 goals while dishing out 640 assists. It was only a matter of time when the Penguins would get around to retiring number 68. The Penguins did trade Jagr to the Washington Capitals as the organization had financial problems at the time. It was July 2001. Some Penguin fans booed Jagr when he returned to Pittsburgh wearing the enemy’s colors. It took some convincing to get Jagr back to Steel Town to show him the love when he was just a young pup from over the pond playing a game he was born to play. The longevity of his career is amazing because of how you can last playing a physical sport that long. Kazuyoshi Miura is 55 years old and a Japanese soccer star who is still playing in Portugal. Jagr was a guy who after a game or practice would stay on the ice and shoot another 100 or 200 pucks. In the NFL, seeing Tom Brady play deep into his 40’s was amazing. Nobody really likes Brady as much as we like Jagr. You wonder how close he would have gotten to Wayne Gretzky’s goals record if he stayed the NHL course. You can’t fault a guy trying different leagues as he was traded away from the team that drafted him. That’s the sports business in present days, that not many players play their entire career with one team. He circled the wagons and is playing with guys in his home town that are 30 years younger than him. Jagr is one year older than his head coach. The skating ability, the puck handling, and the shot he had meant Jagr was fun to watch. When he finally hangs up the skates for good, he will be in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Pittsburgh, in football, has their head coaches take on the job like the Pope for the Steelers. The way the Penguins retire jerseys, they don’t hand those honors just to anyone. Sid “the Kid” Crosby will be the next one after the Jagr ceremonies conclude. It is amazing he skated with Mario for 7 years, he wore 66, and Jagr wore 68. Usually most sports organizations have retired numbers between 1-10. Two numbers from the 60’s makes it interesting. The Energizer battery company should market around Jagr because we don’t know how long he will go.