New Jersey Devils Should Not Pursue Jaromir Jagr
With the NHL Free Agency Frenzy over, teams are looking over the scraps. The New Jersey Devils should avoid one of the remaining players; Jaromir Jagr.
The New Jersey Devils find themselves in an interesting spot. They didn’t make a ton of moves this offseason, but the moves GM Ray Shero did make were great. He added Marcus Johansson for a couple of draft picks, signed Brian Boyle to solidify the bottom six and hit on multiple draft picks, including Nico Hischier.
Right now, there aren’t many more moves to make, between free agency and the trade market. The best players remaining include some of the biggest names of the generations. Unfortunately, those names aren’t very relevant anymore.
One of those names is Jaromir Jagr, but to be fair he’s still quite relevant. He was able to score 16 goals and 30 assists while playing all 82 games with the Florida Panthers. The fact that Jagr is having trouble finding a home is still kind of crazy, despite the fact that he is 45 years old.
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That being said, he doesn’t fit on the Devils as currently constructed. Bleacher Report just predicted the Devils as the preferred landing spot for Jagr. He would add offense to a team who ranked near the bottom in scoring again. The Devils were once Jagr’s team, although it didn’t end on the best terms. He did provide great return on and off the ice, but the team is in a much different place.
Jagr can still handle the puck as good as any player in the league. The issue with Jagr now is he’s just slow. When he gets the puck he knows exactly what to do with it, but getting the puck to Jagr is the issue.
The Devils are building the team on speed. Hischier, Taylor Hall and the rest of the young Devils can rocket up and down the ice. They want to play an up-tempo game with lots of scoring chances. That’s not a place that Jagr can thrive.
Jagr would also take up a spot that could be best served for someone like Blake Speers or Nathan Bastian. Yes, the Devils desperately need a right wing, a position Jagr plays, but he’s meant to be the final piece of the puzzle. The Devils are still a year away from that. Signing Jagr could hurt more than it can help.
However, if Shero does sign Jagr the fanbase would be 100 percent on board, because in Shero we trust.