Johnston: Can the Hockey Hall of Fame create a new exception to end the Jaromir Jagr impasse?

TORONTO – Standing in the shadow of plaques honoring the greatest players in hockey history, some of this year’s Hockey Hall of Fame inductees took a moment to reflect on the greatness of a former teammate who hasn’t yet can be found among those represented in a room called the Great Hall.

“As a rookie to come into the league and get that experience playing with Jaromir Jagr, it was a really cool experience,” said Henrik Lundqvist, the legendary New York Rangers goaltender. “I was probably ten or eleven years old when he dominated the competition, and then you get the chance to play with such a legend. It was amazing.”

“He is truly one of the elite players to ever put on skates,” added Tom Barrasso, who won two Stanley Cups with the Pittsburgh Penguins alongside Jagr. ‘He’s incredible. I ran into him at an event in Pittsburgh this summer, and he’s still about as fit as he was in his 30s – still has the desire to play, and is still as happy a person as you might first imagine. face of the earth.”

Jagr is nearly six years removed from his last NHL game and approaching his 52nd birthday, but he won’t be part of a ceremony like the one held here Monday night for the next three years.

And it will probably be longer.

There is absolutely no debate about the Hall of Fame credentials of the NHL’s second-best scorer of all time, but he remains an active player under the statutes that determine his eligibility for induction due to games he has played for the Kladno Knights team he owns in his home country in the Czech Republic. .

It’s an unusual situation with no end in sight.

There’s no threat that Jagr will try to play at the sport’s highest level again — the Penguins announced Friday they will lift his No. 68 jersey to the rafters on Feb. 18 at PPG Paints Arena — but he’s not appearing either with the Czech Extraliga still needs to be done.

And while one member of the selection committee only half-jokingly suggested that they wished he would retire already, there doesn’t appear to be any move to make an exception that would allow Jagr to be inducted without first going through the three-year waiting period served. period from his last professional or international match.

“You could ask again in 10 years and we’d probably still be in the same boat,” said Lanny McDonald, chairman of the Hockey Hall of Fame.

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On April 18, 1999, the greatest career in NHL history came to an end with the passing of the torch.

Jagr stopped the clock on Wayne Gretzky’s farewell afternoon at Madison Square Garden by keeping the puck low in overtime and going five-hole to give Pittsburgh a win over the Rangers. It was the 127th point of Jagr’s season and part of a run of four consecutive years in which he led the NHL in scoring.

The day after Gretzky retired, it was announced that he would be inducted early into the Hockey Hall of Fame, and ten days after that, the organization’s Board of Directors formally waived the three-year waiting period for his induction. Then the selection committee made it official in June when it declared that Gretzky had been “unanimously” selected in the player category as part of the class of 1999.

He was the tenth player immediately inducted into the Hall, and it was determined he would be the last. At that time, the board abolished the selection committee’s right to waive the three-year waiting period, except in certain humanitarian cases such as terminal illness.

“Obviously Gretz was unique,” ​​McDonald said. “To refrain from doing that, I completely understand.”

The standard has been maintained for more than twenty years since then. That meant Hayley Wickenheiser had to wait three years before being inducted in 2019, and it suggests other obvious first-ballot Hall of Famers like Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin will face a waiting period once they hang up their skates.

Jag too.

Several reasons were given as to why Gretzky was the last immediate entrant.

There was a growing sense that the policy almost created another level of Hall of Famer, which was not the intention. There was also the realization that great players should not be allowed to remain retired. Mario Lemieux was inducted directly into the Hockey Hall of Fame as part of the class of 1997 and returned to play parts of five more NHL seasons with the Penguins. Gordie Howe managed seven more professional seasons between the WHA and the NHL after being hired immediately after his first retirement in 1972. Guy Lafleur returned to the NHL after being welcomed into the Hall in 1988.

There was also precedent to consider.

The Halls of Fame for baseball (five years), basketball (four years) and football (five years) all have a waiting period before induction. And finally, there was a sense that the players themselves appreciated being given a period of reflection after their playing career before receiving the honour.

“There are circumstances where a man retires and may come back at the end of that year. Or come back into the game after two years,” McDonald said. “Three seems like the right number to me. If you’re out of action for three years, there’s a good chance you won’t come back.”

The rules leave no room for interpretation or exception. All a player has to do is dress in a professional or international match to delay the start of the clock on his induction eligibility by another year.

“One and done,” McDonald said.

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There is always an air of mystery surrounding Jagr.

He likes it so much.

At the time of writing, it is still possible that 2023-2024 will be the first of three seasons in which he will have to wait before being eligible for Hockey Hall of Fame induction, as he has yet to appear in a game for Kladno .

He also has not publicly announced his plans, although Czech reporters interpreted an October 11 Instagram post in which Jagr said he received a call from the general manager telling him to get in shape as a sign he was getting ready to to play for a team. with which he made his debut 35 years ago.

When asked about his plans in official interviews, he made comments along the lines of “we’ll see” or “if the team needs me” or “I’ll play if I see I’ll help the team.”

Jagr has been practicing with Kladno all season. Partly as a player, partly as a teacher. He started the year watching games from the couch and recently moved to an upper VIP lounge.

The smart money is on him donning the jersey at some point during a game.

“I think he will definitely play this season,” said a source close to him.

There are all kinds of reasons for him to keep playing. He clearly loves the game first and foremost, but he’s also good for business and remains a big draw for fans. And even at 51, there are indications that he can still help a shrinking Kladno team into games.

He finished last season with eight goals and 19 points in 43 games – a total higher than that of several forwards on the roster.

“Jaromir, that man is a machine,” McDonald said. “To be able to continue playing and play effectively at his age. Whether he owns the team or not, finding a way to get the job done is incredible.”

No challenge seems too big for him. Recall that Jagr decided to leave the NHL after a three-year stint with the Rangers, during which he racked up 290 points and signed with Avangard Omsk in Russia. After three years there, he played parts of seven more seasons in North America.

His last NHL game came on December 31, 2017 for Calgary – a 4-3 win over Chicago in which he played 11:49 and was held without a point for a seventh consecutive game. He had been dealing with a knee injury and his play was declining, so a settlement was reached where the Flames terminated his contract.

Without any fuss or prior warning, he disappeared.

“I can’t really remember how it went. I still remember one day Jags was gone,” said defenseman Mark Giordano, a Flames teammate at the time and now the NHL’s oldest skater at age 40.

“He was in top form. I remember his legs and ass. He’s a monster, man, just a great human being. It’s impossible to get rid of the puck. Like when it is planted, impossible to move.

That’s helpful when you carry the weight of his career achievements: 766 goals and 1,921 points in the NHL regular season, plus another 201 points in 208 playoff games. Five scoring titles. Two Stanley Cup rings. A Hart Trophy, three Ted Lindsay Awards and a Masterton Trophy for “perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.”

Oh yeah, there’s also Olympic gold, two world championship golds and too many other accolades to list in full here.

“He just loves the game and if you want to have a long career, for me it comes down to the passion for it,” Lundqvist said. “You could tell from the way he trained and prepared that he was going to keep going. However, I have not seen this. For example, I knew he would play for a long time; I didn’t think he would play that long.”

He has made another 145 appearances for Kladno over the past six seasons in his late 40s and early 50s. Don’t etch those totals on a plaque just yet, though. Jagr’s career seems endless and that continues to delay one of the most automatic inductions into the Hockey Hall of Fame we’ve seen since Gretzky.

“I know he’s doing it for his city and for the community, to keep that team going, but at the end of the day he’s going to hang up his skates,” Barrasso said. “And he’ll march here, no problem.”

(Illustration: John Bradford / The Athleticswith photos by Denis Brodeur and Kevin Sousa / Getty Images)