Underappreciated
Over the past few weeks it seems that there has been nothing but criticism on our captain Jaromir Jagr. First of course you have the shootout controversy and everyone questioning his captaincy since he does not take the shootouts and what have you. Then earlier this week Barry Melrose blasted Jagr saying “No one wants Jagr, for what he makes what he gives you… one dimensional player and not a winner” so since there is all this negativity towards our captain, I thought I would take a look at his tenure as a Ranger and see if it fair or not.
When Jaromir Jagr was in Washington he caused nothing but problems. He signed the biggest contract in the history of hockey, yet did not produce for the Capitals in the most important column, the win column. Finally on January 24th 2003 Jagr was traded to the New York Rangers in exchange for Anson Carter which would change the direction of the Rangers. It was hoped that with 31 games left he could help bring the Rangers back to the playoffs for the first time since 1997. However, since the Rangers won just 3 of their next 12 games they had a fire sale at the deadline hoping to built towards the future. Jagr had 29 points in 31 games, but by missing the playoffs again the season was a wash. Fans grew even more bitter since that season marked the seventh straight season the Rangers would not get a chance to play for the Stanley Cup.