IIHF Hall Of Fame Induction 2024
Jaromir JAGR (CZE)
Player
Born Kladno, Czechoslovakia (Czechia), February 15, 1972
Jaromir Jagr was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2024 as a Player.
photo: © International Ice Hockey Federation / Andrea Cardin
The legend of Jaromir Jagr grows by the day, as it has for the last three decades and more. Indeed, Czechia’s Number 68 continues to play for his club team, Kladno, even though he is 52 years old and more than a decade past a typical age of retirement.
But there is nothing typical about Jaromir Jagr.
A Kladno player, owner, and supporter all his life, Jagr developed in his home city’s system as a teenager, and at the 1990 World Junior Championship he dominated, recording 18 points in seven games and helping Czechoslovakia to a bronze medal. Just a few months later, he was the youngest player on the Czech team that won bronze at the senior Men’s World Championship in Switzerland.
That summer he was drafted 5th overall by Pittsburgh, and he stepped into a Penguins team led by Mario Lemieux that fall. “Super Mario” was in his prime, and Jagr the youngest player in the league, and the two superstars led Pittsburgh to a Stanley Cup in both 1991 and 1992. As it turned out, those were Jagr’s only Stanley Cup victories, but the records and achievements were only just beginning.
But there is nothing typical about Jaromir Jagr.
A Kladno player, owner, and supporter all his life, Jagr developed in his home city’s system as a teenager, and at the 1990 World Junior Championship he dominated, recording 18 points in seven games and helping Czechoslovakia to a bronze medal. Just a few months later, he was the youngest player on the Czech team that won bronze at the senior Men’s World Championship in Switzerland.
That summer he was drafted 5th overall by Pittsburgh, and he stepped into a Penguins team led by Mario Lemieux that fall. “Super Mario” was in his prime, and Jagr the youngest player in the league, and the two superstars led Pittsburgh to a Stanley Cup in both 1991 and 1992. As it turned out, those were Jagr’s only Stanley Cup victories, but the records and achievements were only just beginning.
photo: © International Ice Hockey Federation
In his first four seasons he increased his production from 57 points to 69, 94, and 99, but his most dominant season was 1995-96 when he had 149 points, the first of five, 100-point seasons during his career. In the seven-year period, 1994-2001, Jagr was the most productive player in the NHL, his 760 points far and away better than any other player. He was not only Lemieux’s teammate; it was clear he was the heir apparent to Wayne Gretzky as the face of the league.
Over the course of his incredible career, Jagr played 24 NHL seasons and recorded 1,921 points, more than any player in the history of the game besides Gretzky. And his 135 gamewinning goals is ahead of every other player. But for all his success in North America, it’s impossible not to think of him wearing his national colours. His international career spanned a quarter century, from that World Juniors in 1990 up to his final tournament, the Men’s Worlds, at home in 2015, the last time the Czechs hosted the tournament before this year.
Of course, Jagr’s most memorable event came in 1998, when the team won its first Olympic gold and sent a nation into a frenzy. Jagr scored only one goal in the tournament, but it was the game winner against the U.S. It was his first of five Olympics appearances, and in 2006 he helped the team win bronze, at Russia’s expense again, in a 3-0 win for third place.
Jagr was equally present at all best-on-best tournaments, playing in the 1991 Canada Cup at age 19, and later at the World Cup in 1996 and again in 2004. In all, he appeared at the Men’s World Championship ten times, winning four medals (two gold, two bronze). That first gold came in 2005, at the end of the NHL’s lockout season, when the Czechs beat Canada, 3-0, in the final game. Jagr assisted on two of the goals, and with the win he became just the 15th member of the Triple Gold Club. He and teammate Jiri Slegr were the first Czechs to earn the TGC pin.
When Prague hosted the Men’s Worlds in 2015, the 43-year-old Jagr announced his retirement from the national team. He capped the tournament with two goals and an assist in a 5-3 win over Finland in the quarter-finals and was named tournament MVP.
The numbers and the years tell only part of the story, though. What separated Jagr from the others, what he had in common with the greatest of the greats, was a distinct style of play. Big and incredibly strong, no one controlled the puck on his stick while fighting off defenders the way he did. He twisted and turned, protected the puck while looking for a chance to shoot or pass, and there was little defenders could do within the rule book to stop him.
Over the course of his incredible career, Jagr played 24 NHL seasons and recorded 1,921 points, more than any player in the history of the game besides Gretzky. And his 135 gamewinning goals is ahead of every other player. But for all his success in North America, it’s impossible not to think of him wearing his national colours. His international career spanned a quarter century, from that World Juniors in 1990 up to his final tournament, the Men’s Worlds, at home in 2015, the last time the Czechs hosted the tournament before this year.
Of course, Jagr’s most memorable event came in 1998, when the team won its first Olympic gold and sent a nation into a frenzy. Jagr scored only one goal in the tournament, but it was the game winner against the U.S. It was his first of five Olympics appearances, and in 2006 he helped the team win bronze, at Russia’s expense again, in a 3-0 win for third place.
Jagr was equally present at all best-on-best tournaments, playing in the 1991 Canada Cup at age 19, and later at the World Cup in 1996 and again in 2004. In all, he appeared at the Men’s World Championship ten times, winning four medals (two gold, two bronze). That first gold came in 2005, at the end of the NHL’s lockout season, when the Czechs beat Canada, 3-0, in the final game. Jagr assisted on two of the goals, and with the win he became just the 15th member of the Triple Gold Club. He and teammate Jiri Slegr were the first Czechs to earn the TGC pin.
When Prague hosted the Men’s Worlds in 2015, the 43-year-old Jagr announced his retirement from the national team. He capped the tournament with two goals and an assist in a 5-3 win over Finland in the quarter-finals and was named tournament MVP.
The numbers and the years tell only part of the story, though. What separated Jagr from the others, what he had in common with the greatest of the greats, was a distinct style of play. Big and incredibly strong, no one controlled the puck on his stick while fighting off defenders the way he did. He twisted and turned, protected the puck while looking for a chance to shoot or pass, and there was little defenders could do within the rule book to stop him.
