Jagr admits to scaring off Canucks at 1990 NHL Draft
Jaromir Jagr is one of the greatest NHL players to ever live â and he could’ve been a member of the Vancouver Canucks.
The Czech superstar was famously drafted fifth overall in the 1990 NHL draft in Vancouver, an event where the Canucks held the second pick.
The star winger revealed in an NHL.com article posted this morning that he dissuaded the Canucks — as well as the other top teams drafting in the top three — from picking him.
When asked by NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti if he told the teams placed ahead of the Penguins â the Quebec Nordiques, Vancouver Canucks, Detroit Red Wings, and Philadelphia Flyers â that he only wanted to play in Pittsburgh, Jagr did admit to some manipulation.
This confirmed rumours that have been swirling around the event for years.
“You know, I would say, half right, half wrong. Yes, I said that to the first three teams,” the forward said, implying that he would’ve been ok with being picked by either the Flyers or Penguins.
He later clarified exactly what happened.
“I never said I donât want to go to [the other teams]. I said I might have to go to the army [in the former Czechoslovakia],” Jagr said in the NHL.com interview. “So, itâs kind of the same way because it might have scared people away because we had to go to the army for two years there.â
The story matches what was said by former Penguins GM Craig Patrick back in 2016. Patrick was in charge when the Penguins drafted Jagr in Vancouver.
“I found out years later that when he was interviewed by teams ahead of us, he told them all that he wasn’t coming over right away,” Patrick said at a team-sponsored golf event. “When we asked him that question, he said ‘I’ll be there tomorrow if you draft me.’ I think other teams backed off because of that. We were happy he was there. We were surprised he was there, definitely.”
Jagr grew up idolizing Mario Lemieux and that seemed to draw him to the Penguins.
“But from the (first) time I saw him play, he was my idol,” said the Czech superstar in the same NHL.com interview. “It wasnât in the NHL. It was other games where I saw him play and I said, âI want to be like him.â And the wish came true.â
The Canucks, worried that Jagr wouldn’t be coming to North America for years, drafted Petr NedvÄd with their pick. The forward would eventually join the Penguins and play alongside Jagr during the mid-1990s in an ironic twist.
Jagr is getting his number retired by the Penguins this weekend. He has the second-most points in NHL history and is still playing for a team he owns in the Czech Extraliga at 52 years old.
In an alternate universe, the Canucks draft Jagr and one of the best players of all-time becomes a franchise legend. However, thanks to some pre-draft manipulation, Jagr made his way to the Penguins and won two Stanley Cups near the start of his career.
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