By Jared Clinton, Features writer

In 2011, when Jaromir Jagr sought to return to the NHL from his years in the wilderness – or the KHL, as it’s more commonly known – a reunion with the Pittsburgh Penguins seemed not only on the table but a logical career capstone for the then-39-year-old hockey icon.

Drafted fifth overall by the Penguins in 1990, Jagr had risen from precocious talent emerging from behind the recently fallen Iron Curtain to a big-league superstar and Hart Trophy winner. And while he’d first left the Penguins a decade earlier – a largely financially driven departure backdropped by an organization that was, at the time, on the brink of bankruptcy – a new day had dawned in Pittsburgh. Sidney Crosby’s arrival, paired with that of Evgeni Malkin, Marc-Andre Fleury and Kris Letang, had seen the Penguins return to past glory and become an NHL powerhouse. The stars, seemingly, had aligned.

As free agency approached, though, the Penguins weren’t the only team in the mix for Jagr’s services. Reports suggested the Detroit Red Wings were in the hunt. So, too, were the Montreal Canadiens. But when Jagr finally put pen to paper for his NHL return, he did so, somewhat stunningly, with the Philadelphia Flyers.

In the minds of some Pittsburgh faithful, it was a betrayal. Jagr was a former face of the franchise, yet he had spurned the Penguins for their in-state rivals, the Flyers. When he met with the media following his signing, Jagr addressed the situation. “If the Penguins feel like I did something wrong or something bad, I cannot change their minds,” Jagr said. “If I hurt somebody, I apologize. I didn’t mean it, but what people have to understand is that it’s my life, and I want to make the choice.”

There is a world, however, in which Jagr’s signing in Philadelphia, not Pittsburgh, might very well have marked his return to where his NHL career began. That it didn’t, perhaps, all comes down to “philosophical differences,” as Les Bowen wrote in the Dec. 1, 1990, issue of The Hockey News, between former Flyers president Jay Snider and GM Bobby Clarke.

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As the story goes, it was only months before the 1990 draft that Clarke was suddenly and fairly unceremoniously given his walking papers by Philadelphia, for whom he’d been GM since the beginning of 1984-85. Though the firing came on the heels of the Flyers missing the post-season for the first time in 17 years, what seemed to contribute most to the decision to relieve Clarke of his duties was that he and Snider differed “on the direction of the team,” as the latter said at the time. The prevailing notion was that Snider was interested in a full-scale rebuild, whereas Clarke was not. So, how did Clarke’s firing potentially alter the course of Jagr’s career and the 1990 draft?

Throughout the season and in the weeks and months leading up to the 1990 selection process, much of the hubbub centered around Owen Nolan, Petr Nedved, Keith Primeau and Mike Ricci, a quartet of budding young players who were each believed to have the potential to be big-league stars. And among prospect hounds, there was plenty of debate and conjecture about who among the foursome was most well-equipped to step in and elevate an NHL franchise.

Some scouts, however, considered Jagr to be the most gifted of the bunch, though it was considered “a minority viewpoint,” according to The Hockey News’ 1990 Future Watch issue. As it turns out, among the most vocal of that minority may have been Clarke, who was noted as having proclaimed Jagr “the best player available.” The excerpt regarding Jagr went on to note that it “remains to be seen if the scouting staff feels the same as Clarke.” The answer came on draft day, when the Flyers stepped up to the podium and selected Ricci, the final available member of the draft’s supposed preeminent prospects after Nolan, Nedved and Primeau had already been taken by the Quebec Nordiques, Vancouver Canucks and Detroit Red Wings, respectively.

In fairness, and in isolation, choosing Ricci was not entirely misguided. He was, for much of the buildup to the 1990 draft, considered the odds-on favorite to be selected first overall. In the season prior to his draft year, Ricci finished 10th in OHL scoring. He followed it up by finishing third in 1989-90, behind Primeau and Paul DiPietro but one spot ahead of Nolan. And even if Ricci didn’t become an offensive superstar, he did evolve into one of the NHL’s premier two-way forwards. He finished in the top four in Selke Trophy voting three consecutive seasons during his prime. He wasn’t a slouch offensively, either. He registered more than 200 goals and more than 600 points in a career that finished one outing shy of 1,100 games.

Ricci ultimately played a pivotal role in Flyers history and NHL lore. He was a major part of the monumental trade package that Philadelphia sent to Quebec to pry a discontented Eric Lindros from the Nordiques. The deal was finalized in June 1992, coincidentally only weeks after Clarke returned to the Flyers as senior vice-president. (Here’s something to ponder: would Philadelphia have pursued the Lindros trade had they selected Jagr in 1990? If so, would Jagr, like Ricci, have been part of the swap?)

The fact remains, though, that none of Ricci, Nolan, Nedved, Primeau, nor frankly any other skater taken in the 1990 draft, is in the same stratosphere as Jagr. Each of those who went before Jagr scored at least 200 goals and 600 points. Others, such as Keith Tkachuk and Peter Bondra, can count themselves among the brotherhood of 500-goal scorers. Tkachuk, as well as Doug Weight, also joined Jagr as millennium men; all three scored at least 1,000 points. The 1990 draft has seen two of its players inducted into the Hall of Fame: Sergei Zubov and Martin Brodeur. (There’s another deep retrospective to be written about the latter being taken 20th overall and as the second goalie off the board in 1990.)

Perhaps only Gordie Howe stands ahead of Jagr in sustained excellence and career longevity. While Jagr departed the NHL for the final time as a 45-year-old following 2017-18 – that’s seven years younger than Howe, who turned 52 in his final campaign – consider that Jagr’s big-league career continued past those of any player selected in any of the five drafts that followed his own.

And if Jagr’s two distinct NHL tenures are taken by themselves, his first (1,273 games played) is the second-longest among his entire draft class, and his second (460 GP) would outrank all but 40 players. Maybe most jarring is the fact that more than half of those taken in the first round of the 2008 draft, most of whom were mere months old when the 1990 draft took place, had their playing days come to a close before Jagr.

But Jagr will not outlast any others. He has said 2024-25, his seventh as player-owner of Czech outfit Kladno, will be his last. With that, the final member of the 1990 draft class will skate off into the sunset. And though Jagr ultimately began his big-league career as a Penguin and not a Flyer, his journey took him across the NHL – yes, to Philadelphia, but to nine franchises in all. By the time he departed, for the second and final time, Jagr had become beloved league-wide, and he’s now set to retire as a legend, an icon and a soon-to-be first-ballot Hall of Famer. That’s worthy of a salute.

This article appeared in our 2025 Draft Preview issue. Our cover story focuses on the Erie Otters' star defenseman and top draft prospect Matthew Schaefer, who has excelled despite the personal losses of his past. We also include features on other top prospects, including Michael Misa and more. In addition, we give our list of the top-100 prospects heading into the 2025 NHL draft.

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