Jaromír Jágr breaks Gretzky’s career hockey goals record – The Hockey Writers – Hockey History
Like fine wine, the quality of Jaromír Jágr only improves with age. In 1990, Jager made his NHL debut at the age of 19 and won the Stanley Cup at the end of his rookie season. Additionally, his peers took notice during his sophomore season, which included an impressive ball-handling performance against the Chicago Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup Finals.
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It didn’t take long for Yager to escape the shadow of teammate Mario Lemieux, win his first scoring title and the Hart Trophy, and become the league’s most valuable player. While his former teammates retired, Jagr dominated the NHL for much of the ’90s. Eventually, he left the Pittsburgh Penguins and took his talents to the Washington Capitals before taking his acting skills to Broadway and the New York Rangers.
After 18 seasons, 646 goals and 1,599 points, Jager chose to play in Russia and join the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), terrorizing goalies for three seasons. However, the desire to win another Stanley Cup brought him back to the NHL, where he played six more years, adding to his total and ensuring he would have his own wing in the Hockey Hall of Fame when he retired.
Although Jagr left the NHL for the second time in 2018, the 45-year-old returned to Europe to play in his native Czech Republic. As a player and owner of Rytíři Kladno, he still has a lot of gas left in the tank. Additionally, in addition to playing with players half his age, Jágr does his best to keep the team competitive and attract fans to the stadium. Amazingly, he’s still playing and scoring, recently breaking the record for most goals in professional hockey, a record once held by Wayne Gretzky.
After scoring his 1,099th goal, he became the only player in football history to score so many goals. How does Jágr achieve these numbers? This is a look back at one of the most storied careers of all time.
Jágr scored 766 NHL goals, ranking 4th all-time
As a teenager, Jágr entered the NHL with the fifth overall pick in the 1990 draft. He scored his first NHL goal on October 7, 1990, against Chris Terreri and the New Jersey Devils, and ended his rookie season with 27 goals, his lowest total in the next 18 seasons.
Although Jager had several attempts to break 100 points, he didn’t cross the threshold until 1995-96, when he had his best season in the NHL with 149 points and a career-high 62 goals. By this time, he had become the best player in the world, winning the Artros Trophy five times in six seasons. Additionally, he finished his first decade with 439 goals and 1,079 points in 806 games.
After a brief two-and-a-half seasons with the Capitals, he scored 83 goals and 201 points in 190 games. Eventually, Jagr ended up in New York, and in his first full season with the Rangers, he set the franchise’s single-season scoring record with 54 goals, a record that has stood since the 2005-06 season. Additionally, while captaining the Original Six, he played in 277 games, scoring 124 goals and 319 points, before leaving the NHL for the first time, scoring 646 goals and 1,599 points in 1,273 games.
Jágr played three seasons in the KHL and made a grand return to the NHL with the Philadelphia Flyers in 2011-12 before embarking on a journey around the league, playing for six teams over the final six years of his career. In his last 460 NHL games, he scored 120 goals and 322 points. Although Jagr was in the twilight of his career, he topped the 20-goal mark twice more with the Devils (24) and the Florida Panthers (27).
Overall, after a storied career with nine teams, Jagr’s goal totals are as follows: Penguins (439), Rangers (124), Capitals (83), Panthers (49), Devils (35), Flyers (19), Dallas Stars (14), Boston Bruins (2) and Calgary Flames (1).
Jágr continues his KHL legacy with 66 goals
Shockingly, after his success in New York, the Rangers chose not to offer Jagr a contract during the 2007-08 season, leaving one of the game’s greatest players with nowhere to go. After weighing his options, he decided to sign a one-year contract with Pioneer Omsk to play in the KHL.
However, with 47 goals and 95 points in 106 games, he signed a contract extension with the club, agreeing to play another season. The club made him captain in 2009, an honor he retained until the end of his contract, and in 2011 they won the Continental Cup. In his final season, he scored 19 goals, finishing his three-year tenure in the KHL with 66 goals.
Interestingly, his time in the KHL wasn’t the only time he skated with the Omsk Pioneers. He played 32 games for the team during the 2004-05 NHL lockout. Although the team was not part of the KHL at the time, he has scored 16 goals since the league’s inception in 2008, bringing his career goal total in Russia to 82.
Jágr played, owned and became a star with his hometown team Kladno
Jaromír Jágr Sr. is the president of HC Kladno, allowing Jágr to play for his hometown team throughout his career. Therefore, he played two seasons as a teenager before coming to North America, scoring 25 goals in 71 games.
During the 1994-95 NHL lockout, Jager returned to his hometown and played 11 games with Kladno, adding eight goals to his total, the last time he played in the Czech Republic for a decade. When the NHL went into another lockout in 2004-05, he returned, playing in 17 games and scoring 11 goals. Nearly a decade later, Jager returned in the 2012-13 season, playing 34 games and scoring a further 24 goals to add to his tally in Kladno.
At the age of 45, Jager left the NHL for the second time in his career and returned to Kladno for the 2017-18 season. Although his appearances were very sporadic in the first two seasons, he scored once in nine games between 2017 and 2019 before becoming a regular in 2019-20, when Kladno gained promotion to the top flight of the Czech Superliga. The 48-year-old skated in 38 games and scored 15 goals, his highest goal total with the Czech Republic since 2013.
Although Kladno made fewer appearances in the 2020-21 season and Kladno was restricted to a lower level in the Czech Superliga, the team was once again given a chance to advance. As a result, Jager returned as a full-time player, scoring a further eight goals in 43 games. Given his desire to promote ice hockey in the Czech Republic, one of ice hockey’s most popular players continued skating and appeared in 26 games during the 2022-23 season, scoring five goals, including his 1,099th career goal on February 5, 2023.
RELATED: Jaromir Jagr returns to Czechoslovakia during lockout
Internationally, since 1990, Jágr has represented his country in numerous World Championships (10), Olympic Games (5) and Hockey World Cups (2), a record that includes his tally of goals at senior level, with 47 goals and 102 points in 121 games.
Jágr’s legacy is unique
Since he spent over 30 years of his career playing in various leagues around the world, the HHOF may have printed his plaque and invitation. The Penguins recently retired his No. 68 jersey, an honor that was long overdue.
Many would say that if Jagr had never been to the KHL or spent time in the Czech Republic, he would have challenged Gretzky’s NHL scoring record and possibly become the second player to eclipse 2,000 points. Some players (such as Tom Brady) try to play professional sports until age 50, but fail. Jagr, meanwhile, will turn 53 on February 15, and whether he plays for another nine years or retires after this season, many will remember him for his crazy workouts, long hair, goal tributes and longevity.
Gretzky may have had less time scoring 1,098 goals; however, one of the enduring qualities of Jágr’s character is that he plays the game at a different level. With unparalleled vision for the game with or without the puck, it’s no wonder he challenged his father’s time and set records that would take a lifetime to break.
