Jordan Staal was 3 days old when Jaromir Jágr made his pro hockey debut.
Since then, Staal has grown up; made the NHL; won the Stanley Cup twice and the Conn Smythe Trophy once; played more than 1,500 games between the regular season and playoffs; and, as he’s less than two weeks away from his 38th birthday, is likely entering the final stage of his career.
And Jágr is still playing.
Jágr, 54, ranks second all-time in NHL points behind only Wayne Gretzky. Since leaving the NHL in 2018, he has played parts of nine seasons for his hometown Kladno Knights in Czechia — a team that he once owned outright, and now holds a 20% stake.
“The fans won’t see me anymore. A miracle would have to happen. God would have to come into me and make me 15 years younger.”
— Jaromir Jágr in a Czech interview
Although the natural reaction is to assume he simply loves the game of hockey, Jágr revealed in 2021 that he wouldn’t still be playing if he didn’t feel like the team needed him.
“I have a responsibility to the club, otherwise I wouldn’t fly here and I wouldn’t be making a fool of myself,” he said. “But if I quit, the partners and sponsors would leave and the club may be done. I have no choice.”
He went on to share that his motivation is much deeper than a financial obligation, too.
“I don’t even want to be in such a position, but I have no choice. As long as my father breathes, I take the club as my responsibility. He held it for 20 years. As a son, I would be embarrassed if I left.”
His father, Jaromir Jágr Sr., owned the team from 1994 to 2011, after which he signed it over to his son. He passed away in 2022 at age 82.
Jágr Jr. can’t continue playing forever, and it seems as though he may call it quits in 2026 after 38 seasons.
According to RMNB, he has not participated in Kladno’s training camp thus far. Seeing as he only played six regular-season games last year, that’s not particularly surprising. But an interview with a Czech paper in February made it seem like he would not be back.
“The fans won’t see me anymore. A miracle would have to happen. God would have to come into me and make me 15 years younger,” he said (translated from Czech to English by Google).
Whether that was to be treated as an official announcement or not, Jágr has plenty of achievements to look back on:
- Two Stanley Cup rings
- Olympic gold medal
- Olympic bronze medal
- Hart Trophy (NHL’s MVP)
- Five Art Ross Trophies (NHL’s leading scorer)
- Three Ted Lindsay Awards (NHL’s most outstanding player)
- Seven NHL first-team all-star nominations
- Two NHL second-team all-star nominations
- Two World Championship gold medals
- Two World Championship bronze medals
- Twelve Zlatá hokejka awards (Czech player of the year)
- IIHF Hall of Fame induction
- Czech Hockey Hall of Fame induction
On top of all of that, at least one teammate of his has played in the Stanley Cup Final every year from 1980 to 2026.
The only thing his résumé is missing at this point is an induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame, which will surely come once he hangs his skates up for good. The mandatory three-year waiting period has been waived for 10 different players in the past, though the HHOF board of directors revoked that ability in 1999.
