This past offseason, it looked like former Penguins star Jaromir Jagr was set to return to his former team after years of playing overseas. The rumors resulted in a frenzy among Penguins fans, who traded rumors about Jagr’s return on Twitter with a #jagrwatch hashtag. Their hopes were scuttled when Jagr chose the rival Flyers instead, and Jagr now tops Pens fans’ list of villains. Now he’s returning to Pittsburgh as a Flyer, and he explains his decision to spurn the Pens’ offer and head to Philadelphia.
Nobody will tell you how they want to use you. That’s one thing. But you can sometimes read between the lines. I’ve got nothing against [Penguins winger Tyler] Kennedy [who was a restricted free agent last summer] or guys like that, but if somebody tells you, ‘Well, we have to wait for Kennedy,’ and he was playing on the third line, well, where am I going to play if you wait for Kennedy before you sign me?
It seems a little odd for Jagr to single out Kennedy in particular, but there you go. When it came time for Jagr to make his decision, it was clear to pretty much everyone who was paying attention that Jagr would have had a big role on the Pens’ power play, but he claims not to know that to have been the case. Oh well. The hype surrounding his potential return was too much, and hating him now is probably a bit much too. It’s a shame for him; he could have ended his career as a hero in Pittsburgh, but now that won’t happen, or at least he’ll have to wait for it.