Jaromir Jagr Turned Down Better Contract Offers To Sign With Philadelphia Flyers

Surprisingly, it apparently wasn’t about the money.

“The Penguins seem like I did something wrong or something bad, and I don’t think I did something bad,” Jagr told the AP. “If they feel like that, I cannot change their minds. I was a free agent, and I had my chance to pick wherever I think is best for me.”

Of course, this all comes together immediately after a week of Jagr Mania in Pittsburgh, where plenty of fans were expecting him to make a triumphant return to the Steel City. He’ll make that return as a member of their biggest rival, instead, and that’s going to be some theater.

Lots of questions, only one answer so far: The experiment will take place in Philadelphia.

It appears as though Jagr and his agent, Petr Svoboda, have not made many friends this offseason though. Two teams with the most interest have pulled out of the running completely after the player and agent tried to gin up a bidding war, and who knows, this could all come back and bite the Jagr camp right in the behind.

The statement from Shero:

There are other teams likely willing to get involved in that bidding war -- Detroit is definitely interested, Montreal is reportedly involved and Philadelphia has kicked the tires internally on the Jagr option as well. He likely will end up somewhere in the NHL after all is said and done, but it won’t be in Pittsburgh. Sorry, nostalgia.

The Pens expected Jagr to make a decision Wednesday, but he didn’t, and in the meantime, excited Penguins fans bombed Twitter and the rest of the internet with dozens of rumors about Jagr and his whereabouts, and many even showed up at Pittsburgh’s airport hoping to celebrate Jagr’s return to the city (which never came).

Wednesday came and went without a decision, and now, Thursday has nearly come and gone. Meanwhile, the NHL free-agency period opens Friday.

It’s been two weeks since we really had a strong indication that Jagr could come back to North America and finish his career in the NHL, and it’s apparently been narrowed down between the Penguins and Red Wings. But signing a contract is still not something that seems imminent, and despite a report in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on Thursday that a contract was agreed to between the Penguins and Jagr’s camp, that doesn’t seem true either.

Via Mlive.com, here’s Jagr’s agent Petr Svoboda on Thursday afternoon:

Jaromir Jagr is looking to return to the NHL and is expected to make a decision sometime Thursday on which team he’ll be taking his talents to, but that announcement won’t come until Friday when NHL free agency officially begins. If Jagr’s going to make his decision prior to the opening of free agency, it seems he has his work cut out for him.

Jagr played the first 11 years of his NHL career with the Penguins, making them an obvious front-runner, before heading to Russia to play the past three seasons.

A report in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review says that all the fretting Pittsburgh Penguins fans were doing Wednesday over the possible signing of Jaromir Jagr was ultimately unnecessary, because Jagr and the Pens had already reached an agreement before Jagr flew to the United States Wednesday afternoon.

It appears that the deal will pay Jagr $2 million for one year.

At 39, Jagr is unlikely to be the impact player he was as a mullet-headed youngster, but that hasn’t stopped the Penguins from cranking the hype meter to 11. For example, there’s this video:

There were pictures of Jagr at the airport, on his way to the states. There was a shot on the Pirates’ broadcast of the team’s game in Toronto of a fan with a sign that read, “I’m on JagrWatch.” “JagrWatch,” meanwhile, was a hot topic on Twitter all day, as Pens fans composed thousands of tweets (many of which could be described as borderline-stalking), about which flights Jagr was taking to New York, and whether his travels would eventually take him to Pittsburgh. There was buzz about the possibility of turtles on the JFK tarmac delaying Jagr’s arrival. There was chatter about a Russian newspaper reporting that Jagr and the Penguins had already reached an agreement. (Petr Svoboda, Jagr’s agent, denied that they had.) And it was all supposed to lead to an announcement that Jagr would be returning to the Penguins, perhaps by around 5:00 PM Eastern.

In case you’re skeptical, Sovietsky Sport is one of the most reputable sports publications in Russia. Jagr is flying to the United States on Wednesday and plans to make a decision on his NHL future quickly upon his arrival. Lysenov also reports that he’s received a contract offer from Omsk, his team in Russia’s KHL.

Makes sense. For more on the Pens side of this story, check in with Pensburgh. With more on the Wings side of things, check in with Winging It In Motown.

He will make his decision upon landing, according to Rob Rossi of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Rossi also reported that it’s a one-year deal for about $2 million.

SB Nation’s Pensburgh hopes that Jagr’s return could fix some of that legacy.