Jagr alongside young NHL superstar next season?

Jagr to join one of the NHL's top young stars?

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 6 years ago
Jagr alongside young NHL superstar next season?
Keystone Press

It was a great surprise to many that the Florida Panthers seemingly made the decision to move on from National Hockey League legend Jaromir Jagr, especially considering how large a part of their offense he proved to be this past season.

Jagr's free agency has led to wild speculation about where he might land and one of the more interesting takes has come from Oilers insider Jonathan Willis of Oilers Now.

Willis believes that Jagr could potentially be a fit on the Edmont Oilers roster, and with names like Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl it would certainly be a very exciting addition to say the least. While making Jagr fit on the roster wouldn't be easy, Willis believes Jagr could be a solid short term solution, even if that means playing him over names like Jesse Puljujarvi and Anton Slepyshev.

From Willis:

Jagr is probably a better bet than either to produce next season. Even at age 45, he’s coming off a 46-point campaign; he had eight power play goals a year ago and his 1.75 points/hour at 5-on-5 would have made him a top-six forward for Edmonton last year. Six years into his NHL return and his teams have always outshot and outscored the opposition with him on the ice at even-strength. There are also undoubtedly intangible benefits to having a legend and fitness freak like Jagr around the team, to say nothing of the general benefits of forcing Slepyshev and Puljujarvi to earn their spots on the roster.

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That being said, the Oilers clearly value developing Puljujarvi and Slepyshev far more than they value developing the aging Jagr, and they could also look to use the cap space somewhere else, notably on the blue line. 

It would at the very least be extremely interesting to see Jagr as an Oiler next season, and a line of Milan Lucic, Leon Draisaitl, and Jaromir Jagr would be something to behold.

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