Jaromir Jagr

Jaromir Jagr is considered to be one of the world’s top hockey players of all time. He was born in 1972 in what is now the Czech Republic, where he began ice skating when he was three-years-old. By the time he was 16, he was playing in the top league in the Czech Republic, with nowhere to advance but to the professional leagues in other parts of the world. He signed on with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1990, and was the first Czech hockey player to be drafted by the NHL without defecting first.

Playing right wing, Jagr was a support player during the 1991 and 1992 NHL seasons. These were the years that the Penguins won back to back Stanley Cups. Jagr became the youngest hockey player ever to score a goal in the Stanley finals. He was only 19-years-old at the time.

There was a lot of fun publicity covering Jagr and his Czech teammate, Jiri Hrdina, as the two became known as the “Czechmates.” Fans also dubbed Jaromir Jagr “Mario Jr.,” as a comparison to Mario Lemieux, another Penguin player. They rearranged the letters in Jaromir anagram-style to make the Mario Jr. nickname.

Throughout the 1990s, Jagr won many titles and awards, including four straight NHL scoring titles. Jagr played with his Czech Republic homeland team in the 1998 Nagano Olympics; the Czech team won the Gold Medal.

In 2001, he was traded to the Washington Capitals. The success of the team was not what had been anticipated, and Jagr was traded to the New York Rangers in 2004. Finally in 2008, he was a free agent, and he decided to sign a two year deal with the Kontinental Hockey League in Russia.