A dress on the ceiling? When Pittsburgh comes to Prague, he wants Jagr
He will be fifty-one in a month, but he still keeps up with his younger peers and confirms that he belongs to the biggest hockey fans. Jaromír Jágr is a legend of Czech sports and a highly respected player overseas, where he spent many years in NHL clubs. But he experienced the greatest fame in the colors of the Pittsburgh Penguins, who in his honor want to retire his number and hang his jersey next to the jerseys of the team’s biggest icons. However, they will have to wait for the ceremonial act – the legendary “sixty-eight” does not agree with the Pittsburgh Penguins being inducted into the Hall of Fame.
In major American sports teams, it is customary for key and successful players after their careers to be honored by displaying jerseys with their names and numbers in a prominent place in the home arena, usually under the ceiling. And the connection “after the end of the career” is essential here.
Jaromír Jágr, who played for hockey Pittsburgh for eleven years, specifically from 1990 to 2001 (then he left for the Washington Capitals), has no plans to hang up his skates yet. “I wanted to show him how much he was loved in Pittsburgh,” said his former rad and now club analyst Phil Bourque.
“I wanted to imagine what kind of night it would probably be (when the dress is hung under the ceiling of the hall – editor’s note),” Bourque said later in the podcast 32 Thoughts by moderators Elliott Friedman and Jeff Mark. He even came to see Jágr himself in the role of team ambassador in December, where they discussed it. And it was during these debates that he stumbled a bit.
The Pittsburgh Penguins actually plan to display his jersey among the club’s greatest legends – it would hang right next to the number 66 worn by the famous Mario Lemieux. They were aiming for April. And along with that, they would retire number 68 forever, something the club has done with only two players in its fifty-five-year history, the aforementioned Lemieux (66) and Michel Briere (21). But Jágr is apparently not in the mood for this type of ceremony yet.
The condition is that he ends his professional career. And even though he has not been in the prestigious NHL for five years, he is still active in the extra-league Rytíří Kladno, where he came after his last stint overseas in Florida, where he is both a player and an owner. “He told me, ‘I haven’t retired yet. When I go there, I will be in favor. Then we can talk about logistics and everything else,'” Bourque for a moment that surprised him.
When Jagr finishes, he is in the stars. Despite his age, he scored over 90 points in Kladno last season and still has a role to play in the team. Interestingly, he ended his NHL career with 1,921 points, only the legendary Wayne Gretzy (2,857) achieved a higher number in the history of the competition. Even the end of a professional hockey career may not theoretically be enough for Jágr’s maximum retirement satisfaction.
His wish before hanging up the jersey is for the Pittsburgh Penguins to come to Prague, where the matches took place. Jagr would throw ceremonial bulls there, officially announce his retirement from hockey, and then come to Pittsburgh, where he would be part of that ceremony. “That’s his vision. That’s his dream,” adds Bourque.
It would certainly be a beautiful moment, but if Jagr really insisted on it, it could take a long time…