What happened to Jagr in Washington?

[BobRouse]

You get that a lot. I don't know why GMs do this, to save their job I guess. Sather did the same thing with Gretzky. I remember an interview in 1993 when a reporter directly asked Sather if it bothered him that Pocklington meddled in things to get Gretzky traded. Sather, in very unconvincing fashion said, "No, not at all, he is owner of the team he can do what he wants."

Then when Sather is gone years later and that documentary, "A King's Ransom" pops up he talks about how much he hated that trade and how he wouldn't have traded him for a whole team.

True phil. Job preservation at its best. McPhee was infamous for this in DC. From being “indignant” when the flyers signed Roenick as soon as free agency opened to his “keeping the powder dry” when never making moves in his firsr 5-10 years outside of dumpster diving.

In his last year he pointed the finger at Holtby is another example. There was a crazy powder keg article by Katie carrera after McPhee was let go those exposed a lot.

But as far as Jagr goes he really was against it from the get go. Jagr was pouring his last couple years in Pitt and it got worse in Dc.

 

[Reindl87]

Mario didn't have annual ten million or more for Jágr as much as he might have wanted to play with him. For Jágr taking a pay cut at a time when he had financial worries of his own also couldn't have been very attractive.

Well, Mario actually did have the money to pay Jagr if he hadn't decided to pay himself 5 Million per year instead of the vet Minimum. Give Jagr those 4.5 Million and he stays.

 

[Reindl87]

I honestly thought it was a weird fit. Maybe he was stung a little with Mario being back, but all of the sudden the Penguins were a (somewhat) contending team again in 2001. Why leave that? He may have wanted to have the glory to himself and have it be more of "his" team, but in all honesty it still would have been. Mario missed a ton of time in 2002 and 2004. Only in 2003 did he have something close to a full season.

When you watch interviews of the time Mario coming back, Jagr seems more than happy and not like a guy that feels like the Team/fame is taken away from him. Let's not forget that Jagr struggled a bit in the first half of the 01 /season (for his Standards) and went totally thermo nuclear when Mario came back, scoring at almost 2ppg for the second half of the season. Walking away from that seems a bit crazy and i don't buy that he went away because of Mario.
Then again he didn't really earn more in Washington than what he did in his last season. So I assume the Penguins must halve offered him for 02 less than he did earn in 01. That must have been the killer point. Here the blame has to go to Lemieux. So I think he didn't live Pittsburg because of the Player Lemieux but because of the owner/GM Lemieux.

 

[Reindl87]

It probably didn't help that Lemieux threw Jagr under the bus in the playoffs.

Pretty sure the Pens were happy to dump his salary when he left so they could finish bottoming out the payroll and trying to save the franchise in Pittsburgh.

I guess Jagrs poor Play in the Playoffs surely was connected to his disapointment over the contract negotiations.

 

[MadLuke]

In is season before he went to Washington, he was not in the top 25 in the league before Mario comeback and after Mario comeback he outscored everyone by a huge amount (except Mario, but he still outscored Mario Lemieux of all players) and with how he played in 2005-2006, could it have been a lot to do with fatigue with the league mentally/physically (that when Mario came back on is team that was a nice source of motivation to give an effort/had fun at the game again ) ?

If we would have smelled a championship in Washington, that he would have turned the wheel up again ?

 

[Terry Yake]

if it wasn't for mario's comeback he likely would have underachieved in his last season with the pens as well

personal issues and the gambling thing were probably more important than hockey at that point for him. then he gets dealt to a team he doesn't want to play for and never meshes with his coach or teammates. its no surprise he didn't play to his usual standards. getting dealt to NY where he wanted to be, the lockout, and the "new" NHL helped him return to the player he was before and his 05-06 season pretty much speaks for itself

 

[Michael Farkas]

Well, Mario actually did have the money to pay Jagr if he hadn't decided to pay himself 5 Million per year instead of the vet Minimum. Give Jagr those 4.5 Million and he stays.

Lemieux's hands were tied...he couldn't "pay himself" an unrealistic figure without getting the union upset...or worse.

 

[BraveCanadian]

I guess Jagrs poor Play in the Playoffs surely was connected to his disapointment over the contract negotiations.

Most of the time during Jagr's prime, his "poor" play in the playoffs was due to injury and being practically a one man team that the opposition could focus all their attention on.

Even then he was a very productive playoff performer.

 

[cauliflower]

Lemieux's hands were tied...he couldn't "pay himself" an unrealistic figure without getting the union upset...or worse.

This is it, exactly. His contract when he came back was the league average salary, but the union was upset with the idea of such a high scorer being paid almost 1/10 of what other players were making and pressured him to take a higher salary for his next contract.