Jaromir Jagr now owns the richest contract is NHL history. The question is how many months - or days - he'll own that distinction.
Jagr, the NHL scoring leader, agreed Tuesday to a four-year contract extension worth $38 million that will pay him $10.4 million in the 2002-03 season.Jagr would become the first NHL player to earn a $10 million-a-year salary that season, although other players have earned more when their signing bonuses were added.
"You never know where the dollars are going to go," Jagr said. "But I want to play here and I want to stay here. I want to finish my career here."
The total value of what now becomes a six-year contract is $48 million - the richest ever given an NHL player. Jagr will make $5.1 million this season and $4.75 million next season under his old contract before his salary climbs to $9.5 million in the 1999-2000 season.
The only other Pittsburgh athlete to earn a similar wage was the recently retired Mario Lemieux, who signed a $42 million, seven-year contract in 1992 that was later renegotiated several times.