As dinner guests go, Jaromir Jagr is tough to beat.
Jagr joined Kevin Acklin, Pittsburgh Penguins president of business operations, for Acklin’s birthday dinner Wednesday night in Prague, where a Penguins contingent is taking in the World Championship staged in the capital city of Jagr’s native Czechia.
Jagr’s sweet tooth is well documented, but Acklin intended to butter him up to join the Penguins in some official capacity.
“Just his presence, it’s important to us,” Acklin said in March. “There was closure (with Jagr’s jersey retirement in Pittsburgh). Now it’s a new chapter we’re hopeful to write.”
Jagr spent his first 11 seasons with the Penguins. He became part of Pittsburgh’s pop culture in the 1990s while transforming from “Mario Jr.” — an anagram of his first name and nod to Penguins teammate Mario Lemieux, his boyhood idol — to a two-time Stanley Cup champion and winner of five Art Ross trophies. He was as beloved off the ice as dominant on it, the heir to Lemieux in numerous ways.
Whereas Lemieux never played for another franchise and purchased the Penguins from bankruptcy to keep them in Pittsburgh, Jagr spent over two decades becoming an NHL nomad estranged from his original team and city.
A lot happened over the last 12 months to change that dynamic.
What started as a phone conversation between Acklin and Jagr turned into a several-day visit by Jagr last summer. In Pittsburgh for an autograph show, Jagr toured PPG Paints Arena at Acklin’s invitation. A bond formed fast, and Jagr returned to the Czech Republic receptive to Acklin’s pitch to retire No. 68.
That happened in February during what became known around the Penguins as “Jagr Week.” Not only was his jersey retired on Feb. 18, but he attended two games, practiced with the team and even took a victory lap at the arena.
It was enough to wipe away “the sour taste” that Acklin said Jagr had felt toward his controversial breakup with the Penguins after requesting a trade following the 2000-01 season. The adulation showered upon Jagr by fans, former teammates and current iconic players Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang rekindled a romance between Pittsburgh and one of its prodigal hockey sons.
“I’d told him last summer, ‘We boo people in Pittsburgh,’” said Acklin, who grew up a Penguins fan. “I said, ‘Jags, we booed you because we loved you and wanted you back.’
“After that first week back in February, he said, ‘Now I understand.’”
While dining with Lemieux and former teammates at a popular Pittsburgh Italian restaurant in February, Jagr agreed to attend Lemieux’s annual celebrity hockey tournament that benefits the Mario Lemieux Foundation. That brought Jagr back to Pittsburgh twice in a matter of a month — though not long enough for him to see the Penguins recover Jagr bobbleheads that were intercepted by cargo thieves in California in March.
“All part of the legend of Jaromir Jagr,” Acklin said of the bobbleheads saga and many other “unbelievable Jagr stories.”
“Speeding tickets. Leaving his scoring titles in his house and never looking back. The mullet. All those overtime goals in the playoffs. The Kit Kats. His metal music. He was one of the great heroes of our team. Then he was one of the big villains. And now he’s kind of back and it’s a love fest again.
“There’s never been anybody like him for our team. He’s Jagr. There’s only one.”
Acklin aims for the reunion to become permanent.
Though not yet formalized, Acklin said in March he envisioned a role for Jagr that would let him spend the majority of his time in Kladno, Czech Republic, where he lives, owns and still plays for his hometown team. Jagr would also make regular trips to Pittsburgh, not in an official hockey capacity but not merely as an ambassador.
“I don’t know what it looks like exactly,” Acklin said. “We have talked about the future. I told him when I come to Prague for the worlds, we’ll talk more.
“But clearly this is a relationship that needs to be cultivated.”
Having Jagr in Pittsburgh a few times each season would, if nothing else, distract from a recent downward trend on the ice. The Penguins have missed the playoffs the past two seasons, and optimism is scarce even among diehards.
Acklin said Jagr’s understanding of the business of hockey throughout Europe would benefit the Penguins. While Kyle Dubas, the Penguins’ president of hockey operations, would have full say on whether Jagr’s role included work on the hockey side, Acklin said there is an obvious benefit to having Jagr in the fold as Crosby, Malkin and Letang enter the last stages of their storied careers.
“He understands the dynamic here with great players and their importance to our fans,” Acklin said. “The change some of our guys are going through, he’s been through.”
Crosby said at the time of Jagr’s jersey retirement in February “it would be great to have Jags be a part of the organization if that’s what he wants.”
“I think you saw from the reaction — the fans obviously, but also just being around the guys — he brings a presence wherever he goes,” Crosby said. “He’s a huge part of this franchise. I think when you think of the Penguins, he’s one of the first names that comes to mind.”
The very first is Lemieux, who hadn’t spent much time around the franchise after his ownership group sold to Fenway Sports Group midway through the 2020-21 season. Friends said Lemieux needed a break after being Mr. Everything for the Penguins since he was drafted first in 1984. There also was disharmony between Lemieux and FSG, though that began to thaw this past season, especially with Jagr’s return.
Lemieux is the Penguins. He has no interest in being a well-compensated ambassador. He retains a minuscule ownership share but possesses no day-to-day responsibilities. Jagr might not, either, in any future role with the Penguins.
However, just as Jagr succeeded Lemieux in Pittsburgh as the NHL’s best player in the 1990s, Acklin is keen to bring about a similar succession with Jagr as a legendary public face of the Penguins.
“He’s got a lot of things going on,” Acklin said of Jagr, who could not be reached for comment by The Athletic. “But one of those things can be the Penguins.
“It’s Jaromir Jagr. That just makes sense, right?”
(Photo: Justin Berl / Getty Images)