First, the general manager of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Craig Patrick, said: “Yes, Czechoslovakia,” and then the slightly garbled name of Jaromír Jágr. He stood up in a light jacket, kissed his mother, and shook hands with his father, who honestly took pictures of the event. And then he headed to the podium next to Jiří Šlégr, who was sitting next to him, to pull a Pittsburgh jersey over his head for the first and last time with a number other than 68. “I am proud that he should have chosen Pittsburgh and I would like to thank my family for their support. My dream has come true, I will play in the best league in the world,” Jagr said through a translator.
The marriage with the Penguins, which was filled with love at the beginning, later divorced after disagreements, and finally reconciled, officially began on June 16, 1990.
It’s been a few years since Craig Patrick let the media know that Jagr had cheated the first four draft clubs. And that he bluffed during the interviews with their representatives. “Years later, I learned that he had talked to others about wanting to stay in Czechoslovakia. He told us that if we chose him, he would fly in tomorrow,” Patrick said in 2016.
From the Penguins’ point of view, it sounds romantic, and turns the 18-year-old Jágr into a poker-faced spy. And although there is a little bit of truth in every grain of truth – as in this case – Patrick was actually very lucky that Jágr remained on the menu even before his choice.
“I thought I was going to go fourth to Philadelphia. At 100 percent! They were in contact with me saying, ‘We’re taking you!’ So when they didn’t say my name, I was surprised,” Jagr recalled to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette a few years ago.
But the Flyers reached for Mike Ricci.
Photo: Profimedia.cz
Jaromír Jágr signing autographs in 1992.
However, Jagr’s journey to Pittsburgh started much earlier. The Velvet Revolution not only changed the established political order in the country, but freedom also opened the door for hockey “dreamers” to go out without needing the blessing of their comrades. This almost overnight also gave NHL clubs a solid opportunity to poach talented youngsters from behind the Iron Curtain.
Even under the communists, they reached for them, but only in the later rounds, because it made no sense to waste the election on someone who may never get across the Atlantic. Jiří Dudáček can serve as a shining example, he was drafted by Buffalo in the 1st round in 1981, because then coach Scotty Bowman declared that he was the best junior in the world. But Dudáček never thought about emigrating, and American journalists today call this selection “the worst in the history of Buffalo”.
The second Czech who made it to the 1st round (1984) was Petr Svoboda, who already had the status of emigrant at the time, and the third was Robert Holík (1989), who was not afraid of leaving thanks to his sister Andrea.
But now there were no political obstacles to Jágr’s choice, and so the groping and courtship began. In February 1990, in the post-revolutionary euphoria, a tennis exhibition between Ivan Lendl and Miloslav Mečíř took place in Prague. It was also because of her that hockey Sparta had to move from the Sports Hall to Eden for the semi-final series against Kladno, and Lendl, who helped the Hartford Whalers club, and the legendary Bobby Orr, who was a consultant for the team, also arrived for one of the matches. The Whalers already had Holík from last year.
“Lendl indicated that the club is very interested in me. But then he talked to my dad and made it clear to him that I was lost for his team, because in his opinion I would be drafted one hundred percent before Hartford’s turn (they voted 15th),” Jágr says in his autobiography From Kladno to America.
The delegation from Québec Nordiques, which had the right of first choice and was led by Peter Šťastný, also arrived in Kladno after Jágr. “At that time, they promised mountains and mines, they said that they would make an agreement with President Havel so that I wouldn’t have to go to war, and they would give me a fairy-tale contract.”
However, due to the club’s weak ambitions, Jágr was not attracted to the French-speaking part of Canada, which is why he spoke uncertainly about the future in interviews, and the team then preferred to agree on the Owen Nolan draft ahead of time.
The 1990 NHL Draft By the numbers, it was an exceptional draft. It has a very low percentage of hockey players who actually played in the NHL (39.2%), only the year 2002 is worse (35.7%). At the same time, the selected player’s career lasted an average of 437 games in the NHL. What is it? Due to the fall of the Iron Curtain, managers often chose fighters without knowing if they were interested in the NHL (for example, Czechs Žemlička, Kořínek, Kontšek and Mejzlík were selected). But when they did hit, it was a masterpiece (Robert Lang was number 133 and Petr Bondra 156). A few years ago, the NHL.com website did a so-called re-draft, that is, what the ideal order would look like today, when we already know the history of the players. Jágr would be number one, goalkeeper Martin Brodeur number two (20th at the time), Owen Nolan number eight (1st), Petr Nedvěd number ten (2nd) and Lang number 12.
There was also one more snag for overseas teams. In the era without internet, limited telephone connection and strong isolation, they did not have enough information about adepts from Eastern Europe. Can it hold up to rougher play at all? The World Championship in Switzerland in April proved to be an ideal test of what Jágr really is, where Pavel Wohl and Stanislav Veselý took the line of “young guns” Holík, Reichel, and Jágr.
Of course, scouts and overseas coaches also gathered here. Bob Johnson, the Penguins’ coach since the new season, has given his players the task of checking and squeezing Jágr. “Paul Coffey must have thought they were crazy in Pittsburgh to draft a kid like that,” Jágr recalls in his autobiography, adding that the legendary guard shook his head when he saw Jágr playing football bago before the game – nowadays a traditional warm-up even for overseas selections – with Robert Reichl.
But Inge Hammarström, the Flyers’ scout, also watched Jágr closely in Bern. After the game against Canada, the Swede immediately called Philadelphia general manager Bobby Clarke: “There is no one in this year’s draft who comes close to Jagr!”
And he described how the youth line pushed Canada in every substitution in the 3-2 win.
For Jágr – otherwise unfamiliar with NHL conditions – the tournament also served as an educational seminar on the functioning of this competition. Robert Holík became his teacher, who, on trips to matches and in the hotel room, almost constantly told him how to play the system, who advances to the playoffs… Dominik Hašek later described how this got on the nerves of the players, because the concentration on the youngster was not 100% . Even so, the Czechoslovaks won the bronze.
The June draft in Vancouver was getting closer and closer, and it was also crystallizing more and more who would reach for Jágr. The day before the final, he had two key meetings with his father and an interpreter. On the 20th floor of the hotel, he first met Patrick and Johnson, who wanted to hear that Jágr was willing to come to the NHL in the following season.
Patrick, who was waiting for Jágro’s dad in front of the hotel the morning before the draft, also received assurances: “Will you put your hand in the fire for him to come?”
“Yes,” Jagr Sr. replied to the Pittsburgh manager.
But the Flyers logically received the same assurance.
Then-club owner Ed Snider and scout Hammarström took Jágr and his family to dinner the day before the draft. “Where are you going to play next year?” Snider asked.
“In the NHL,” Jagr said.
Snider then turned to Hammarström. “Do you think he can play in the NHL?
“Seven days a week starting tomorrow,” said the scout.
And since the Flyers had an earlier pick, Jagr and his family got the impression that the next hockey stop would undoubtedly be Philadelphia.
Photo: Profimedia.cz
Jaromír Jagr in 1991.
Was not. The night before Hammarström was drafted, the other Flyers scouts overruled and reached for Ricci. The Swede lamented his loss and later said, “If the Flyers had picked Jagr, they would have had a few more Stanley Cups with him.”
This is how the Penguins got them with him, because even the clubs before Pittsburgh did not take Jagr. For example, Petr Nedvěd was the second pick of the draft, but Vancouver was sure that he would be available. Detroit didn’t want a European from the third position, and here Jágr could really partially influence the choice with his bluffing.
However, immediately after the draft, the striker still said that he would join the Penguins team only after the World Twenty20 Championship in Canada in December. In addition, Kladno flaunted the contract that Jágr signed when he was sixteen, and began haggling with Pittsburgh about a severance package. After several meetings, increasing the amount, Jagr’s father finally hit the table and instead of the exorbitant $750,000, a compromise of $200,000 was agreed upon.
Jágr himself took the same amount annually. In addition, manager Patrick told him that if he procrastinated and joined the team after the New Year, the cabin would have a hard time accepting him. The young man listened to him, and so already in mid-July, Jágr, as the first European in the history of the club, applied for the services of the Penguins. And the amazing story, which will be crowned on Sunday with the hanging of the jersey, has started.
2024-02-12 14:37:43
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