Speculation over how the Chicago Blackhawks could replace the sidelined Patrick Kane dominates today’s NHL rumor mill.
How will the Blackhawks replace Kane?
Could the Blackhawks acquire Antoine Vermette as a short-term replacement for Patrick Kane?
CHICAGO SUN-TIMES: Mark Lazerus reports the Blackhawks placed superstar winger Patrick Kane (broken left clavicle) on long-term injured reserve, freeing up roughly $6 million in salary-cap space. The trade market, however, is rapidly drying up. Lazerus claims the Blackhawks are “heavily interested” in Arizona Coyotes forward Antoine Vermette, while Buffalo’s Chris Stewart and New Jersey’s Jaromir Jagr could be possibilities.
USA TODAY: Kevin Allen lists Vermette, Stewart, Jagr, New Jersey’s Michael Ryder, Calgary’s Curtis Glencross and Florida’s Tomas Fleischmann as trade possibilities for the Blackhawks.
THE BUFFALO NEWS: John Vogl speculates Kane’s injury could turn the Blackhawks’ focus toward Sabres winger Chris Stewart.
NICHOLS ON HOCKEY: TSN’s Bob McKenzie believes Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman will be very aggressively exploring trade options to replace Kane. He also lists Vermette and Glencross as possible targets.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The ‘Hawks won’t find anyone in the trade market who can actually replace Kane’s skills. At best they’re bringing in a decent depth forward. The best of the bunch is Vermette, who could be a good fit in their system. Glencross might also work well for the ‘Hawks. Freeing up Kane’s salary also gives them wiggle room to add another depth defenseman. I think the ‘Hawks will be active leading up to the trade deadline.
Other notable trade speculation.
NICHOLS ON HOCKEY: TSN’s Bob McKenzie claims the Boston Bruins and New York Rangers are getting a little antsy on the trade front. The Bruins remain linked to Buffalo’s Chris Stewart, while the Rangers have been linked to Toronto’s Tyler Bozak, though he still has term and significant salary ($4.2 million annually) left on his contract.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: If the Rangers want Bozak they’ll have to move a salaried player or one of their pending RFAs. They have limited cap space for next season.
NORTHJERSEY.COM: Andrew Gross reports rumors claiming the Rangers could trade pending UFA winger Mats Zuccarello so far remain incorrect. Gross also speculates the Rangers could target Coyotes forward Antoine Vermette and Colorado Avalanche defenseman Jan Hejda.
TRIBLIVE.COM: Rob Rossi believes the Pittsburgh Penguins acquisition of Daniel Winnik isn’t enough, and calls upon management to bolster their offense. He suggests they pursue New Jersey Devils winger (and former Penguin) Jaromir Jagr.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: While Penguins GM Jim Rutherford could still be sniffing around for a scoring winger, I have my doubts he’ll bring back Jagr. It would make a great story, but I think that ship sailed a long time ago.
EDMONTON JOURNAL: Jim Matheson speculates the removal of Andrej Sekera from the trade market could increase the value of Oilers defenseman Jeff Petry. Matheson claims “Montreal, Detroit, Tampa, Washington, Pittsburgh, St. Louis and the Ducks are all looking for one more defenceman.”
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Oilers could try to land a young player along with a second-round pick or prospect for Petry.
THE DENVER POST: Mike Chambers reports the Colorado Avalanche could shop defenseman and pending UFA Jan Hejda or perhaps aging winger Daniel Briere, though he expects takers will be few for Briere. Chambers doesn’t expect center Ryan O’Reilly will be moved at the trade deadline.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: If O’Reilly gets traded it’ll happen in the offseason. I don’t think there’s a deal to be made for him at the deadline.
ESPN.COM: Pierre LeBrun reports Minnesota Wild GM Chuck Fletcher may not be done shopping for depth for his injury-riddled roster. Earlier this week, Fletcher acquired winger Sean Bergenheim from the Florida Panthers.
OTTAWA SUN: Don Brennan reports Senators defenseman and oft-rumored trade candidate Patrick Wiercioch is open to moving on and perhaps a fresh start with another club.
CSNBAYAREA.COM: Kevin Kurz anticipates the San Jose Sharks will try to unload pending UFAs like Scott Hannan, Antti Niemi, Matt Irwin, Tyler Kennedy, James Sheppard and Andrew Desjardins at the trade deadline.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Stick tap to GJ Berg. It certainly seems like the Sharks are poised to become sellers.
We could be looking at the worst deadline day in the history of deadline days…the UFAs for the most part all gone accept Vermette and Stewart, little to no growth in the cap next year. Ya Monday could be slow. Jagar Stewart and Vermette how exciting!
There could still be a bunch of players involved that people haven’t speculated on yet… That seems to happen every year as well, surprises in the players that move. Time will tell.
true, could be some more, money for money deals just doesn’t seem likely with little projected cap growth.
If there are many of these type of deals they should be interesting. I’m just doubtful there will be.
The various TO emergency wards are going to have an influx of “thumb-up-the-bum” trauma events.
Anaheim, Detroit, NYR, St. Louis, Vancouver, Philly, Flordia, have really done nothing yet. Teams like Boston and San Jose are still deciding if they want to sell or not.
Some of those best trades (the panic trades) won’t happen until deadline day. I think it could be a crazy crazy day. If TO does get an opportunity to traded Kessel and Phaneuf it won’t happen without that panic.
Well, here’s a (fearless?) prediction: not ONE contract with term will be traded on Monday.
The reason a number of teams have done nothing is that there’s nobody substantial being offered. As Spector alluded to earlier, the players being discussed are 2nd tier and are depth players at best. No impact players like Eberle have been mentioned in any serious trade talks.
I love all the rumours but some I don’t get. For example, I find it hard to believe a 43 year old Jagr is going to help a playoff team, let alone replace Patrick Kane. I have him in my fantasy draft so I have been watching the Devils. He has 3 points this month playing 11 minutes a game, he’s very slow, doesn’t go near the boards, has less awareness of the defensive zone than Kessel and is totally gassed by the 3rd period. Scott Hannan was deemed a pylon 3 years ago so what does he have to offer now that he’s even slower? Columbus’s Cam Atkinson is 5’8″ and 174# and I seriously doubt he’ll help take on the heavy west coast teams.
Yeah, the TSN panel will sit around analyzing a Chris Tewart trade for 7 hours then there will be a few trades at 3pm, this kind of thing has happened in the past though there seems to be a lot more early trades this year.
Why wouldn’t Chicago look at Lupul as a replacement for Kane? Maybe IF Toronto picked up some of his salary, say half, then CHI gets Lupul, a good fit this year to replace Kane somewhat and a good secondary scorer for the next two years as CHI will still be competitive then IMO. If his cap hit is 5.25M and Toronto picks up half that’s 2.625M and with Brad Richards 2M and Carcillo’s .5M coming off as UFA’s next year I think he would be a good fit. Fair trade TOR gets Hartman and next year’s 1st but more realistically a 2nd.
Lupul has to much term and dollars on his contract for the Hawks. In order for them to acquire him, TO pretty much has to pay 95-100% of the salary.
Why would Toronto be willing to pick up half the salary in that scenario? I know Lupul is hurt historically about 1/3 of the time, but he’s a good player and a good influence on the younger players…why would Toronto pay $2.6M a year for the privilege of letting him go?
because lupuls value at 2.6 is greater than at 5.25… leafs get a better pick and prospect in return… its not like toronto is going to be pushing for big named players during the rebuild… in 2.5 years when it comes off the books is when they’ll need to start resigning guys
The Leafs are stuck with Lupul, Phaneuf, Kessel, Clarkson and Gardiner because of their cap hits/term and what each brings to the table as part of their overall game in relation to what they are costing the team in terms of the cap and for how long. While it’s fun to toss around “possibilities” the bottom line is, all the possible fantasy scenarios in the world are not going to change that. Just about every team has been hit between the eyes by the belated realisation of how bulky contracts – especially those with limited movement/NT clauses – can adversely impact their cap system, and in the case of the Leafs they probably have been hit the hardest in terms of trade possibilities, although Boston, Chicago, San Jose and Pittsburgh aren’t far behind. And it all rests on the broad shoulders of Nonis.
I suspect that the Leafs might find a taker if they put Lupul on waivers, someone might pick him up for free with that cap hit and injury history but they may not. Lupul won’t generate a return unless the Leafs hold onto some of his salary. Not sure why you are concerned about them holding salary, they have more than enough money and they won’t be a cap team for a while if they are going to rebuild. Two years of half of Lupul’s, or Kessel’s or Pheneuf’s salary won’t mean a thing to them other than allowing them flexability around the cap floor.
I believe that the Leafs can only pick up 40% and they are already retaining the max number of salaries allowed by the CBA this season. So as far as I understand it they won’t be able to retain anymore salary in any further transactions this season.
No they can hold on one more contract, max is 3, they are holding on 2 (Gunnarsson and Winnik) and its 50% max excluding bonus money.
How can all these people who “cover hockey” for a living not know how things work? It’s late in the season,Kane just went on IR. That doesn’t free up 6 mil to sign someone. It doesn’t work that way. Yes it’s a large “per day cap hit” for Kane but weren’t the Hawks pinned against the cap? How much room can they really have without moving someone still? Someone please explain how they can suddenly afford vermette?
Cause Vermette is ufa and dosent make as much as Kane whos remaining salary is off the books while on ltir and there is no cap in the playoffs.
Because Kane is on the LTIR, the Blackhawks have a 6 million dollar player off the books, which means they can replace him with another player that has up to a 6 million/year salary. Don’t forget that they are only paying for 25 games of service now. It is not like they are paying the whole 6 million to the new player.
The Hawks will get cap relief on Kane’s contract.
That will allow the Hawks take on contracts up to about. 8 million. All those numbers are yearly but you are correct saying it is a per game amount.
Cap relief allows the Hawks not to have Kane’s salary applied a against the cap for the rest of the year.
By putting him on LTIR frees up his cap space to acquire players who make his cap hit of $6.3M
for example Chicago could acquire Steart at 50% —his salary would be around $2.1M
That leaves about $4.2M more to spend on players.
What would the Sabres demand as compensation for Stewart at half price? That alone may be too much.
A trade involving Glencross going to Washington was being reported as pretty much done early in the day yesterday. Then news of Kane’s surgery news came out and the chatter out of Washington slowed.
Reports now have the Blackhawks and Washington bidding for Glencross’ s services. This only helps Calgary.
Glencross on Ovie’s line could be very good for Curtis and his contract this summer.
Really doubtful that a move involving ROR will happen until at least July. Rumors out of Denver have management wanting to explore an extension and that can’t happen until July 1.
I guess Crawford, Keith, Seabrook, Sharp and Hossa are not “stars”. And neither are Letang or Fleury. WOW! If they are not stars then there has recently been some MAJORLY increased criteria for being a “star”!!! I guess Nashville is SCREWED then with only Weber! They better go for it! #SupremeSarcasm! #HeadFirmlyInButt
Sorry, wrong response section! 🙁
Dunno how THAT happened!
No ‘rumors’ of Kessel to Chicago? ;-0
Crazy NHL season where twice now the Western Conference top scorer goes down.
Giordano is injured too; top defenseman in points
It’s time to see if Brodie is the real deal or if he is farming points off of being Giordano’s mate.
Watch the Flames miss the play-offs and Gio have a bad start to the year. Then the Flames dump him as a pending UFA for half of what they could have moved him for this year.
#ScaredFlamesFan
Actually, that is surprising. I couldn’t even guess what Chicago could give TO for Kessel but he’d potentially be the closest thing available to replacing Kane. I’m not saying they are equally valuble but there are few in the league who are. TO keeps some salary and gets a few prospects/picks?
Too much term for Chicago – that would kill them next season against the cap.
The hawks have to go for it. Starting next year, they are the west’s equivalent of the Pittsburgh penguins.
two stars, and not enough cap to go around.
Really sucks for the whole NHL to lose Kane after already losing Seguin.
I know that the play where Kane is hurt was a freak play but as a rule the NHL lets their stars get abused through infractions that are not called because of “game management”
That is why fighting exist in hockey.
I get that joel, it just isn’t what it used to be.
Guys don’t have to fight anymore.
I guess Crawford, Keith, Seabrook, Sharp and Hossa are not “stars”. And neither are Letang or Fleury. WOW! If they are not stars then there has recently been some MAJORLY increased criteria for being a “star”!!! I guess Nashville is SCREWED then with only Weber! They better go for it! #SupremeSarcasm! #HeadFirmlyInButt
No, in context of two guys taking up nearly 30 percent of next years cap. Thirty percent. Yes, on that team, those guys are the stars.
sharp will be traded, keith hasa super reasonable aav if i remember correct. Not sure on Seabrook. Crawford is what 6 million for the next 4?
So with Crawford, toews, kane, keith. That has to be like 32 millionish in cap space?
But thanks for the sarcasm Hollywood.
Crawford a star? #lol They’ve been talking about moving Sharp all season… And Fleury a star? Know why Pitts hasn’t won a cup in the last 4-5 years, it’s sitting between their pipes. I get these players are good, but a star is a top player all the time, not just part of the time. Keith, Seabrook and Hossa are star players, not Crawford or Fleury.
Pretty sure the point was that with the new contracts coming in that it will be a similar situation, where major salary is tied up in a few players.
“Scott Hannan, Antti Niemi, Matt Irwin, Tyler Kennedy, James Sheppard and Andrew Desjardins at the trade deadline.”
How about all of them and this year’s #1 for Kessel, Bernier and Robidas?
Believe it or not… there is only a $100k difference in salary cap until adding Robidas, and he is the cap hit penalty SJ needs to take to compensate for getting to add Kessel. And I know that is allot of bodies! BUT! Believe it or not, it would leave SJ with 12F and 6D!!! All signed for next year (and beyond in most cases) except for Dillon and Bernier who are RFA!
All the UFAs have the rest of the season to show character and Leaf management what they have and the Leafs sign who they wanna keep and walk away from who they don’t while freeing up a whack of cash for free agency!
And you cannot tell me that Kessel would not FLOURISH in SJ! He and Couture would be DEADLY together!
Sounds great for Sharks fans (like me), but I highly doubt that will happen. Then again, we are talking about Toronto.
Usually I am ripping Leaf fans for making trade proposals so lopsided to the Leafs that it physically aggravates me, Ok maybe a little exaggeration there but its close. In this case Hollywood, I have to say the Leafs would be dumb to trade Bernier and Kessel for a package of borderline NHLers, no matter how many of them there are. Zero chance that trade happens or Nonis will be tarred and feathered.
Nonis is on his way out anyways, and EVERYONE is saying that the Leafs need to unload these “untradeable” contracts. well… here you go!
The contracts that will be hard to move are, Lupul, Phaneuf and Robidas, not Bernier and Kessel. Personally I wouldn’t want kessel on my team with that cap hit but there will be desperate teams that will still line up for him.
Dear god… kessel is not an untradeable contract… clarkson yes… phaneuf… pretty much… kessel not even close… he’s making what a player of his calibre makes
We don’t tar and feather here, we use maple syrup and beaver pelts.
Nice!
This is awful sorry Hollywood, sare you trying to make friends out of the peeps that hate your 1 sided Leaf trades? This is the polar opposite of that…just an awful deal for the Leafs lol.
Easier ways of making some cap room than lighting guys on fire.
I just LOVE how guys still say they would not want Kessel when the team gives up LITERALLY NOTHING to get one of the top 5 scorers in the NHL over the past 5 years.
Perhaps because they recall how a team put a lot of expectations on Dany Heatly who, over 5 straight seasons, scored 50, 50, 41, 39 and 39 goals and is now a bloated 34 y/o caricature of himself in the minors thanks in no small part to ignoring conditioning. Sound familiar? And Kessel has never reached 40 yet in his career. So why would anyone take a chance on a repeat for a guy costing an $8 mil cap hit with another 7 years to go on the deal?
Maybe if they added JVR and a risque photo of Nonis mother this could be slightly more insulting?
I do not think the Pens are done… They look to have a 1st round match up with the Rangers or Islanders. They are 2-6 combined in those games.
I begrudgingly have to admit I suspect Lyle (and most prognosticators) are correct that neither the Kessel or Phaenuf will be moved until the summer, I suspect Bozak will go. 4.2m is not a trivial pickup but I suspect ShanaNonis could make this happen. Plus when Bozak is out I suspect Phil will open up his trade list a little as he doesn’t have his accustomed set up man to work with.
One question I have – by the summer will my rebuilding leafs have a reset to absorb salary for (I think it was three contracts) for the 2015/16 season? Since they’ve already absorbed on two pre deadline I expect this but want to be sure.
Not 100% sure but once Winniks contract is up they will be able to hold salary on 2 contracts, they will still be holding money on Gunnarssons and you can only hold on 3 deals per year, which is why I didnt really care for the Winnik trade. Id rather have took less if it meant holding nothing, and being able to move a bigger contract or 2 prior to the summer.
doesn’t bozak getting traded narrow phils list to one team? not make it bigger 😛
I am going to add my Sens thoughts to this rumour thing.
As i suggested Collin Greening did not lace up the skates last night. He just came along incase of an injury as a fill in. Peumple was playing. So it is not likely Greening gets dealt unless he is tossed in with someone else.
Condra on the other hand put up another point. He is being quite productive leading up the to the trade deadline. I think he may be seriously looked at by teams like Pittsburg and Chicago.
Nor does it hurt that Condra’s a UFA at the end and is only costing a $1,250,000 cap hit so what’s left on March 1 is negligible. Greening, on the other hand, has two more years after this at a cap hit of $2,650,000 and is therefore virtually untradable. Helluva way to “showcase” him as the original article in the Sun claimed was the reason for the call-up – in the press box!
Some just assume. Not to brag but I feel I know my team quite well and can accurately guess to why they do he things they do and predict for the most part the trades they make and why? But I soak up all that is Sens lol
hey maybe the habs are looking at Bozak and play him on the 3 rd line giving up maybe eller could be a good fit but the leafs would have to sweeted the pot up
maybe Korbizer#55
just sayin
I see…. So Eller > Bozak????
In what universe?!?!?! and BTW – Korbinian Holzer = #55
Sorry bud but in this trade scenario its Montreal that would have to sweeten the pot not the leafs.
Nope. Eller leads the Habs in possession, has played with inferior wingers and has the toughest defensive assignments of the forwards on the team. He may be struggling to score but he won’t be traded for Bozak, who gets more minutes and plays with Torontos best wingers a lot of the time. Throw in Eller being younger and making less money against the cap and there’s not a chance Bergevin swaps him for Bozak.
To add a little context to that, if you head over to own the pucks website and look at hero charts you’ll notice Eller is an elite third line based on every metric. Bozak, on the other hand, ranks as a first liner in icetime and assists /60 mins (thank you Kessel and JVR), but ranks below an average NHL fourth liner in shots/60 and corsi against/60. These stats were accumulated over the past 3 NHL seasons, so its a large sample size. There’s more to an NHL player than points.
Not that I dissagree withyou totally but look up Berganhiem on that site and tell me how he ranks, and what was he traded for? I toothink adv sstats are a valuable tool but just as you say there is more to a player than points its also true of adv stats.
When it comes to the armchair analysts, hockey reporters, and bloggers go more attention should be paid to understand what the stats are saying.
On many occasions what Dreger, Feschuck, bloggers, fans and many others determine a players value is is flawed.
Long term stats can give a clearer view of who should have value and who should not.
The sad part is not all teams are using the tools analytics provide.
Analytics are the starting point then you have to evaluate character, organizational compatibility, and potential … the later 3 are much more difficult to ascertain but there are tools being developed to understand those better.
The NHL is now doing an interview evaluation of the top couple rounds of draftees to provide tools for better drafting.
You need more than gut feelings these days to build franchises.
Drew im sure MB wont make a trade involving eller unless he knows hes not giving up the farm whereas Nonis is in firesale mode drafts piks and prospects not blue chip prospects at that
Jeff as you mention Condra has been playing well of late. He has done everything the organization has asked of him, he was very patient getting his shot at playing. He shut up and worked hard until he got his chance. I’d consider trading Legwand and resiging Condra for another year @ 1.3 ish. If Michalek can be moved do it , even eat some salary. Greening will likely be bought out this summer. Zack Smith would have been a good trade chip had he not been injured. If they plan on keeping Smith he must play center, he is not nearly as effective playing wing.
At least one of Price and Puempel should crack the lineup full time next year, maybe both.
I agree. I have no problems if they keep him. If they can trade him to better the franchise that is OK by me as well. I was just doing my own reporting and generating gossip all on my own as this is a trade rumour page. 😛
I don’t hate Bozak to NY (although his last name in NYC may be problematic) but I do hate the cap problems it will create. They trade for him, they are clearly saying goodbye to Zuccs or Hagelin.
is there someone on new york with close salary and term the leafs could take back? I don’t think the leafs mind taking some crappy 1-3 year contracts to increase the value they’re getting back now that they’re going full rebuild
The only guy close in $$$’s is Boyle (without trading a top 6 forward or 4 d-man+Hayes and Hagelin who should be keepers), as bad as he has been defensively, NY can’t spare him. The only Right handed d-man they could bring up is McILrath….EEEEEK. NO thanks. But I doubt Toronto has any interest in Boyle anyway.
Sorry, I disagree.Boyle is horrendous in his own zone and way overpaid..Should have kept Strahlman…
While I agree that Boyle sucks (pretty much said, he sucks but no replacement from within), the Stralman ship has sailed. Unless Sather has a time machine, Stralman is gone, Boyle is here. They have Skjei left handed not NHL ready, Allen left handed maybe a slight improvement….but left handed, and McIlrath right handed but even at the time he was drafted was a 7th d-man-AHL caliber guy. If you think Boyle is bad, just wait until you see McIlrath play…..No way does AV settle on 2 left handed d-men on any pairing.
Aside from the cap problems you mention I think Bozak to the Rangers is a decent fit, gives them very good depth and ballance down the middle with Stepan and Brassard and some good options if a guy is nicked up or struggling a little. Not sure what would come back but… wouldnt surprise me if he fit in there pretty well.
I don’t hate the idea at all.I hate the squeeze in $$$’s. Bozak, Hagelin and Hayes on the 3rd line would look pretty nice imo. Hopefully if they do this they are saying goodbye or come cheap to St.Louis instead of Zuccs or Hagelin next year. I just can’t imagine MSG chanting “Bozak” without giggling like a child.
who does the ranger give away to get under the cap and try to resign their top rfa’s this coming summer for a player at most a third line center
MSL and Boyle..get rid of both of them after this season and we’re fine cap wise.
I don’t think they will, or should strip this down to a bunch of kids like Edmonton did, that guarantees a 10 year rebuild. They have some solid pieces and will need some veteran’s. Lupul is a player worth keeping if they don’t get a great deal, keeping half his salary is not a great deal. They aren’t trying to dump him for the sake of dumping him is all I’m saying.
sorry, that was supposed to be up higher somewhere.
10yr rebuild or wait 4 decades whats the diff? Lol
hey its only a 47 yr rebuild whats another quarter century for the leafs fans lol
Is this the year that Shane Doan decides he wants to get a cup and be traded???? and Yandle will be a huge move for whoever gets him. Bigger then Stewart, jagr, etc. He could be a difference maker for a cup contender for sure. Pure speculation on Doan. I did no research just throwing it out there.
I know +/- isn’t something to live and die on, but it’s always on here about Kessel and Phaneuff’s +/-….and I read that Yandel was a -27 this year, which is 2014 OV territory. I’m not one of the 17 people who regulary watches Coyote games, is he really that elite a player? he’s been rumoured to be traded for like 3 years.
Shane Doan is going nowhere and this has been reported by many many sources. He is either not interested and thus has a NTC or ownership wants to keep his leadership in place.
In regards to any player– plus minus is a flawed stat. Get to understand CORSI and FENWICK. It is a much better tool for evaluating players and comparing them to others.
Yandle is far from the top tier of defensemen but can add solid 3/4 depth and can give you more options on the PP.
Bruins are in a bad position. No reason to trade prospects or picks for a rental if you miss the playoffs. On the flip side can’t move veterans as they are trying to make the playoffs. What to do. To me it doesn’t look like it’s there year start thinking about the future. Let the young guys play move the UFA’s for some picks and prospects. Guys like Campbell,Paille and Soderberg could bring in some assets.
It will be interesting to see what they do. It’s already been stated chiarelli and juliens job are on the line. So with that in mind you’d think they are making a couple moves. But with Neely having a say in things will he veto any move that is to drastic. Interesting situation
Jagr just got traded to Florida for a 2015 2nd and 2016 conditional 3rd
It’s actually kind of funny there are 10 guys on Florida who weren’t born when jagr started in nhl and the panthers weren’t even in the league then either.
It’s amazing to think that if Jagr hadn’t spent 4 seasons in the KHL that he would have topped the 2000pt plateau and would be second only to Gretzky in the NHL. A 2nd and 3rd round pick might seem like a lot for a 43yr old that is past his prime, but the presence that Jagr would create in the dressing room for some of these kids is pretty impressive. Jagr will go down in history as one of the best of all time, and to get to play with him should be inspiring for the young Panthers.