You can tell that Jagr's mobility was severely hampered by some ailment. Your game doesn't just fall off of cliff overnight the way some were assuming.
Jagr had actually looked pretty fast in the first few games he had played in with the Flames. It seems everyone orgot that game in which Jagr kept pace with Gaudreau on that rush up the ice play?
Time and time again in Jagr's career, he's made critics, doubters and detractors eat crow. After the 2013 finals run with the Bruins in which he was seriously snakebit (I count 7 posts he hit during that run), everyone thought he was done. What does he do, he follows it up with a 67 pts season for the Devils at the tender age of 42, in the process leading them in scoring by 17 pts, also finishing as a +16, leading the team in that category by a margin of +13. This was also after missing all of training camp with an injury, and srarting the season with just 1 goal and 3 pts through the first 10 games of the season. Needless to say, at age 42, he becomes the oldest NHL player to lead his team in scoring. His 67 pts placed him in the top 20 scorers of the league, shall I repeat that he was 42?
He resigns with the Devils for the following season. Things don't look so good for Jagr suddenly, the GM fires their coach who seemed to have really striken up a good working relationship with Jagr. Jagr goes from averaging 19 minutes a game to suddenly being relegated to the 4th line, and barely seeing any PP time (his average icetime had dropped to 11 minutes a game). Jagr was looking slow, old and down and out. It had seemed like at the age of 42-43, Father Time had finally gotten a hold of old man Jagr. Then something happened, he gets traded to a young, inexperienced, but full of potential Panthers team at the trade deadline. The result is a 19 pts in 20 games finish for Jagr, and a Panthers team that suddenly looked like was ready to take the next step.
So with that being said, it was only natural that Jagr would resign with the Panthers.
What Jagr would do in 2015-16 for the Panthers is nothing short of amazing. In 79 games, at age 43-44, he would break the record that he owned himself of becoming the oldest NHL player to lead his team in scoring. This time his numbers were even more impressive than his first season with the Devils. 27 goals, 66 pts in 79 games (pace of 70 pts), for the Division champs Panthers team. His performance would not go unnoticed as he would finish 7th in Hart voting. Do I need to repeat that a the end of that season he was 44 years old?
Starting to see a pattern here?
Whenever Jagr was supposed to finally be done, finally have the game pass him by, he would prove everyone wrong. I have no doubt in my mind that he will do it one more time. Jagr will not be pushed out of the league, he's going to go out on his own terms.
None of this would have been a discussion btw had Jagr not been injured in the manner we now know to be quite serious. From the explanation given about his injury, heck someone like Gaudreau or even McDavid who rely on speed and shiftiness to play the game would have looked slow on the ice with the very same combination of injuries; knee, thigh and groin combo.
We haven't seen the last of Jagr in the NHL. He may be back in time for the playoffs to help the Flames. This was not a true player waivers/ player dump. He was loaned to his team that he owns so he can rehab and get back into game shape.