Jaromir Jagr of New Jersey Devils makes hat-trick history
By Phil Watson
Jaromir Jagr has a four-goal game in his career and had 14 hat tricks entering Saturday’s game. But the New Jersey Devils forward made history with his 15th.
Jaromir Jagr is a little more than a month away from his 43rd birthday.
For most athletes, that’s a lot closer to being history than making history. But the New Jersey Devils’ forward did just that on Saturday against the Philadelphia Flyers, putting himself in the NHL record books with a hat trick in the Devils’ 5-2 win at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.
Per Elias Sports Bureau, Jaromir Jagr (42) is the oldest player in NHL history to net a hat trick. Gordie Howe was previous oldest at 41.
— Tom Gulitti (@TomGulittiNHL) January 4, 2015
For Jagr, it was his first hat trick in almost nine years. His last three-goal game came on March 22, 2006, when he was with the New York Rangers, coming coincidentally (not ironically) enough against Philadelphia.
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At 42 years and 322 days, Jagr passed the mark set by Gordie Howe, who was 41 years and 206 days old when he scored a hat trick for the Detroit Red Wings against the Los Angeles Kings on Oct. 29, 1969.
Jagr’s first hat trick was almost 24 years ago, when he had a three-goal game for the Pittsburgh Penguins against the Boston Bruins on Feb. 2, 1991, when he was an 18-year-old rookie.
With 714 career goals, Jagr is sixth in NHL history, three behind Phil Esposito. He is fifth all-time in points with 1,780—18 behind fourth-place Ron Francis, his former teammate with the Penguins early in his career.
It leads one to wonder where Jagr would be on the all-time list had he not taken three seasons away from the NHL from 2008-11, when he played for Avangard Omsk Region in the Kontinental Hockey League, where he scored 66 goals in 155 games.
Jagr was the fifth overall selection by the Penguins in the 1990 NHL Entry Draft after defecting from the former Czechoslovakia (yes, it really was that long ago).
He was part of the Czech Republic’s gold-medal winning team at the Nagano Winter Games in 1998 and has represented the nation five times in Olympic play, scoring 10 goals and 25 points in 28 games in Olympic competition.
Jagr is a five-time NHL scoring champion and won the Hart Trophy as MVP in 1998-99.
He played 11 seasons for Pittsburgh, spent two-plus with the Washington Capitals, three-plus with the Rangers, one with the Flyers, part of a season with the Dallas Stars, part of a season with the Bruins and is in his second season in New Jersey.
His career highs are 62 goals and 149 points in 1995-96.
This season, he has nine goals and 25 points in 40 games … which isn’t bad at all for a dude about to turn 43.
Think of it this way—he is the only active player in the NHL who was in the original NHL Hockey game from EA Sports in 1991.
Yeah, he has been around a looooong time.
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