7/04/2008

REPORT: JAGR SIGNS TWO-YEAR DEAL WITH AVANGARD OMSK

MOSCOW - Russian club Avangard Omsk says it has signed Jaromir Jagr, a day after the New York Rangers parted ways with the star winger.
Avangard announced the signing on its website today but did not disclose the terms of the contract.
Jagr had long been reported to be considering lucrative offers from Russia. Rangers general manager Glen Sather said Thursday the club could not wait any longer for Jagr to decide where he wanted to play.
Jagr played for Avangard during the NHL's lockout season in 2004-05.
On Thursday, the Rangers signed former Vancouver captain Markus Naslund to replace Jagr.

1 comment:

Douglas McLachlan said...

No doubt one of the undisclosed terms will be an "escape to NHL" clause.

If not, or if decides not to exercise his escape clause (say because he can't get a 2-year deal from one of his list of preferred NHL clubs), the Severed Heads will be in an odd spot. No doubt they have anticipated having to replace Jagr with Malkin, but they probably intended to do the swap next season (after a spirited run to repeat).

Option one - bite the bullet and replace Jagr with Malkin. Yes you lose a year of prospect status with Malkin - which sucks - but you are picking a Hart Trophy finalist with your first pick, not a bad option.

Option two - replace Jagr with a new FP at pick one (Lecavalier, Nabakov, Datsyuk, etc) with the intent of trading him or Heatley at some point during the season for a clearly "expiring" FP who would replace by Malkin at next year's draft.

Option three - trade Jagr for a "one-year" FP like a Sakic or Marleau and some other win - prospect, pick or RFA - and then pick the best player for a one year run replacing him with Malkin at next year's draft.

I'm still betting that Jagr will be in an NHL uniform come October but I'm sure Cam would prefer a little more assurance on this prediction.