Jaromir Jagr Is Getting His Number Retired By The Penguins This Weekend, But That's Not Enough. It Needs To Be The Whole Damn League
Gregory Shamus. Getty Images.Jaromir Jagr is currently playing in his 37th season of professional hockey. At 52 years old, he's playing in his 6th straight season with his Czech club, Kladno. But he'll have to miss a few games this upcoming weekend as he travels to Pittsburgh for his jersey to be retired by the Penguins before their game against the Kings on Sunday night.
806 career games with the Penguins. 439 goals, 1079 points, 5 Art Ross Trophies (including a run of 4 years in a row), a Hart Trophy, and a 2x Stanley Cup Champion.
When you have a career like that, you don't need to technically retire a jersey number to make sure that nobody else on the Penguins even thinks about slapping a 68 on the back of their sweater. You'd get sent to the minors so goddamn quick if you even suggested the idea of wearing 68 in Pittsburgh.
It's pretty rare, but there are just a certain couple of numbers that just belong to a certain couple of players, and it should always remain that way. For example--nobody else in hockey should ever wear 99, not even at the youth level. 99 is Gretzky, and Gretzky only. I'd say that 68 and Jagr is the same way. Maybe even more so than 66 and Lemieux. There's just something about 68 that is so unique that it would be impossible to see anybody wear the number without thinking they're either A) trying way too part to be Jagr, or B) disrespecting the number. Sometimes you need the league to step in and save players from making that mistake. The same way they stepped in an retired 99 league-wide.
No offense to Mike Hoffman, but he'd be out there in a Jofa helmet right now doing Jaromir Jagr cosplay if the rules allowed him too. No offense to guys Callahan Burke or Samuel Fagemo, but literally nobody has ever actually heard of those guys before and they shouldn't be allowed to wear 68 out there. Just go ahead and retire the number league wide, especially considering Jagr ended up playing for half the league anyway.
And somehow it always looked perfect.
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Gregory Shamus. Getty Images.
Glenn James. Getty Images.Okay Dallas might have been the only one where it looked weird. The Stars should still be in jail for these uniforms.
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Icon Sportswire. Getty Images.You really forget how many teams he snuck on there at the end of his career. But aside from that Stars one, they are all A1 jerseys. That's how you know you've got a number that belongs to a specific player. If anything, any future NHL player who wants to wear #68 should get Jagr's permission in written consent before getting to actually wear it.