Jaromír Jágr

Jaromír Jágr began his career with Poldi SONP Kladno’s U18 squad in the Czechoslovak First League and stayed with them through 1990 for the first two years of his senior career. During this time, he won a silver medal at the European Junior Championships, behind the Soviet Union, and bronze at the World Championships in 1990. As socialism was beginning to collapse in Europe, he was eligible for the 1990 National Hockey League (NHL) draft and was selected by the Pittsburgh Penguins, where he would remain through 2001. During that time, he won the Stanley Cup in his first two seasons, captured the Art Ross Trophy as league points leader five times (1995, 1998-2001), and was league Most Valuable Player in 1999. He returned to the World Championships in 1994 with the Czech Republic and placed seventh. He had much better luck at the 1998 Nagano Olympics, where the nation won the gold medal.

Jágr was traded to the Washington Capitals in 2001, and then to the New York Rangers midway through the 2003-04 season. During the 2004-05 NHL lockout, he played with HC Rabat Kladno of the Czech Extraliga and Avangard Omsk of the Russian Superleague, before returning to the Rangers and playing with them through 2008. During this time, the Czech Republic was eliminated in the quarter-finals by the upcoming bronze medalists from Russia at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, but the country had its revenge four years later when it defeated Russia in the bronze medal match of the 2006 Torino Games. He was also fifth at the World Championships in 2002 and 2004, before capturing gold in 2005.

Jágr then spent three years with Avangard Omsk, before returning to the NHL to spend one season each with the Philadelphia Flyers and the Dallas Stars, although he was traded to the Boston Bruins near the end of the latter tenure. He would go on to play with the New Jersey Devils (2013-15) and Florida Panthers (2015-17), before ending his NHL career with the Calgary Flames for one season. During this time, he wrapped up his time as an international player with gold and bronze at the World Championships in 2010 and 2011 respectively, in addition to a sixth-place finish in 2009 and fourth-place finishes in 2014 and 2015. He was also seventh and sixth at the 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympics respectively. At the former edition, he was also the Opening Ceremony flagbearer.

This was not the end of Jágr’s professional ice hockey career, however, as he returned to Rytíři Kladno and did not retire until the end of the 2024-25 season, at which point he was 53. Among his many NHL records, he has the most number of game-winning goals at 135.