Tonight the Pittsburgh Penguins host the Los Angeles Kings for the second meeting between the two teams on the 2023-24 regular season calendar. Pittsburgh won the first contest in Los Angeles on November 9, a 4-3 overtime win capped off by Bryan Rust’s winner. The Penguins have the chance tonight to sweep the season series against the Kings for the first time since 2018. With both teams still grappling for a playoff spot, it stands to reason that it will be a spirited affair, although perhaps for more than one reason. Of course, that is because, before the game, there is to be a monumental festivity for the retirement of the third jersey number in Pittsburgh Penguins history: #68, in honor of Jaromir Jagr, just three days after his 52nd birthday.

Like his peer Barry Bonds, whose accolades as a Pittsburgh Pirate alone likely would have seen him in the Baseball Hall of Fame by now, Jagr’s tenure as a Penguin alone possibly would have sufficed to get the Czech right winger into the Hockey Hall of Fame. In Jagr’s 806 games with Pittsburgh he notched 439 goals and 640 assists, totaling 1079 points. In those terms, he stood second behind longtime teammate and fellow jersey number retiree Mario Lemieux until current Penguins (and almost-definite future number retirees) Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin eclipsed him over the past few years. In terms of per-game metrics, Jagr still sits second to Mario in goals and points and fifth in assists, the last one still ahead of Crosby and Malkin. In his rookie year in 1990-91, he finished sixth in Calder voting for rookie of the year and was part of that year’s Stanley Cup-winning team.

Of course the Penguins went on to win a consecutive Stanley Cup the following year, but Jaromir would start to really hit his stride a few years later when he finished second to Eric Lindros in Hart voting as NHL MVP but was first in scoring in the League. Between 1997 and 2001 Jagr was at the peak of his powers: he was the League’s leading scorer each season, a Hart finalist each season (winning the award after the 1998-99 season), and he was named the best player in the League by the NHLPA in 1999 and 2000.

These four seasons coincided largely with the absence of Lemieux, and while the Penguins were good (eighth-best points percentage in the League), they weren’t good enough to make it out of the second round of the playoffs. Lemieux’s return in 2001 helped the Penguins break into the Eastern Conference Finals, but they were stymied in that series by the New Jersey Devils. That offseason, the Penguins traded Jagr to the rival Washington Capitals (as inconceivable now as it was then), and that was the end of Jagr’s tenure as a Pittsburgh Penguin.

It is a little heartening to know that Jagr’s best years were with Pittsburgh. Although he spent more time in his NHL career not as a Penguin (927 games), he was less productive, he didn’t win another championship (coming closest with the Boston Bruins in a six game Finals appearance in 2013), and the only two awards he would win were the Pearson in 2006 (finishing just behind Joe Thornton for the Hart trophy) and Masterton in 2016 for his perseverance and sportsmanship. Jagr retired from the NHL at the age of 45 in 2018…and still went on to play abroad for his hometown Kladno in the Czech Republic. In fact, he continues to play for them to this day!

But for many years, the question has been whether his achievements as a Penguin stood enough on their own to have his number retired, the highest honor a team can bestow on one of their alumni. Between the fact that he still is not a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame (certainly a distinction which will inevitably come, once he decides to stop playing hockey), and the fact that the only other two former Penguins to have their numbers retired are the effectively lifelong Penguin Mario Lemieux and Michel Briere (whose number was retired posthumously), it’s hard to see exactly where Jagr’s legacy as a Penguin lies.

This was an issue for the fanbase for some time as well. After the 2017 Stanley Cup Finals, I polled this blog as to whose numbers everyone thought would be retired: 70% of the respondents agreed that Jagr would have his number retired. When I asked again in November 2022, the number nudged up only a little bit to 72%.

I’ve stated my case on here for years, and I’ll state it again: any questions about Jagr’s legacy as a Penguin are silly. Yes, his tenure was relatively brief, but it was stellar. Individually, he was critical to the Penguins staying afloat for many years, especially when Lemieux was retired. As part of a team, he helped bring Pittsburgh two championships and two three other Conference Finals. No one but the Core 3 (including Kris Letang) and Lemieux has played as many games for Pittsburgh. He is not just one of the greatest Penguins of all time, he’s one of the greatest hockey players of all time. In my opinion, his number retirement is long overdue and, considering that it seemed likely to never happen as long as he was still playing, I’m glad I lived long enough to finally see it.

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