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Friday, 01 July 2011 11:48

Written by Seth Rorabaugh

Well... that was an interesting two weeks.

The Penguins have withdrawn their contract offer of one-year and $2 million to former captain Jaromir Jagr. And they managed to do it via press release:

"We made what we thought was a very fair contract offer to Jaromir on Tuesday, based on his stated interest of returning to the Penguins," said Ray Shero, the team's executive vice president and general manager. "We made our best offer from the start, given our salary cap structure, in an attempt to facilitate a deal. But now, after several days, with an extended time frame for making a decision, and additional teams getting involved, we have decided to move in a different direction. It was never our intention to get involved in a free agent bidding war, and we have to focus on our team.

"Jaromir is one of the greatest players in Penguins history, and we wish him all the best."

EN Says: A few years ago, Jagr said of Mario Lemieux, ""I would play for the minimum salary. I would play for $350,000 just for him because I owe him my hockey life. I want to pay him back because he has made me what I am…besides my parents.”

Boy did that turn out to be a load of bunk.

Jagr had a chance to remove a nasty stain on his legacy with the Penguins with a return. But with his actions the past weeks, he has pretty much ripped it to shreds.

Bravo to the Penguins management for moving on. They gave him more than an fair chance to re-join the team. Lemieux, who is a very hands off owner, even got involved in some way with the discussions. Jagr just had to give them a simple answer one way or another. But at some point, Ray Shero needed to move on and handle the rest of his team.

Update: One of Jagr's other NHL suitors, the Red Wings, have withdrawn their offer as well.

(Photo: Post-Gazette archives)

Comments (7)

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written by Patrick, July 01, 2011 - 12:06 PM

Wow. As a fan who watched Jagr, and who would have just loved it had he accepted the Pens offer, I have to say that I find it pretty stunning that he turned down the Pens offer (if the terms are, indeed, as it has been reported). I have no reason to doubt that. Feel-good story of the summer just torn to shreds, and there's no one to blame for that but Jaromir. I agree too--kudos to Shero for not letting this delay mess up the Pens plans going forward. Hopefully, an even better player will be snagged in Jagr's place. Still, I am stunned.

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written by Okel Dokel, July 01, 2011 - 12:10 PM

Would have been nice to sing Jags; he is a drama queen though and I am not sure that has changed based on what is happening.

Glad to see TK is back - http://penguins.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=567955

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written by Patrick, July 01, 2011 - 12:19 PM

Hey Seth, I meant to add--that I'm going to miss the pic above with Jagr and the kids and the two women. I was really looking forward to the same pic "20 years later" ... hahaha.

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written by Boom Shaka, July 01, 2011 - 12:19 PM

Seth,

I think what he has said during the course of the past few months is much more telling of what was to happen than that comment from a few years ago and based on that no one should be surprised or hurt by this.

Again, he made it clear Pittsburgh wasn't his only choice. He expressed great interest in Pittsburgh for sure, but he expressed interest in several other teams as well.

Like GMRS said, best of luck to him. He's one of the greatest Penguins of all time.

I am glad the organization handled it the way they did. It's a good thing Ray Shero is a helluva GM and not a typical fan.

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written by Lili, July 01, 2011 - 12:26 PM

I think the hype has dissapointed me more than anything.

Hope he ends up in the KHL so he doesn't have to ace coming here during the season. That would be BRUUUTAL

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written by Bones, July 01, 2011 - 12:31 PM

I'll preface this by saying that I really, really wanted this to work out.

But after Wednesday's deadline was missed it really felt like the behavior of Jagr and Svoboda was making Shero, Lemieux, and the franchise look bad. Shero reestablished his reputation as a no-nonsense type of guy by withdrawing the offer. This situation turned into a complete soap opera as soon as turtles on the runway became part of the story.

It is very telling that two Cup-winning GMs had enough and pulled their offers from the table.

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written by Louder_Is_Best, July 01, 2011 - 12:50 PM

It is very telling that two Cup-winning GMs had enough and pulled their offers from the table.

That's the key, right there. Pretty much everyone regards Detroit as the model franchise, and the Penguins right now aren't far behind. For BOTH of those organizations to say, basically, "Okay, screw this - you wanna play games, you know where you can shove it" tells us all we need to know about the immature clown known as Jaromir Jagr.

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