Jaromir Jagr included in Czech Republic’s preliminary player pool for 2018 Olympics

The Czech Republic included veteran free agent forward Jaromir Jagr on its preliminary list of players for the 2018 Winter Olympics, general manager Milan Hnilička revealed to the Czech website Denik Sport this week.

Jagr, 45, recently said during a Czech television interview that was considering playing in the upcoming Olympics if he doesn’t return to the NHL, which isn’t participating in the Winter Games. He’s still holding out hope that somebody will come along with a compelling offer to bring him back for a 24th NHL season.

This move doesn’t ensure that he’ll be playing in the Olympics in February, but it maintains his eligibility if he doesn’t go back to the NHL for the upcoming season.

Jagr would be a major addition to the Czech team in what should be an interesting Olympic tournament. With countries unable to use NHL players, Russia looks to be a favorite with KHL stars like Ilya Kovalchuk, Pavel Datsyuk, and Nikita Gusev leading the way.

The Czech Republic won gold at the 1998 Olympics in Nagano — the first to feature NHL stars — and bronze at the 2006 Olympics in Turin. The past two Olympics, the team finished in seventh place.

The Calgary Flames are one team believed to be interested in signing Jagr, and he said in that Czech TV interview that he’s willing to wait for a deal if that’s what it takes. Here’s what Jagr said about the kind of situation he’s looking for.

“It’s about going to a team where they have, let’s say, fewer wings; going to the team that has a chance to win the Stanley Cup; and going to the team that plays similar kind of hockey as I do,” he said. “And to the team where I know there [are] a couple of players that I could click with playing together.

“Money is a factor, too. But not because of the money itself, but because if you took an offer with a minimal salary, it could easily happen that after the first half of the season they tell you, ‘Bye,’ and you don’t have a spot on the roster anymore. Myself, I’m curious to see how it’s [going to] turn out.”

It sounds like Jagr is saying there that he doesn’t want to take too cheap of a deal in the NHL, not because of the low payment, but because a low cap hit would make him easily expendable. Over the past few years, Jagr’s cap hits have ranged between $4 million and $5.5 million each season.

At this point, it sounds increasingly like it’ll be the NHL or the Olympics for Jagr this season. At least that means we’ll be able to watch the future Hall of Famer one way or another.