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Rangers' Jagr will follow the money

Arthur Staple

11:30 AM EDT, May 7, 2008

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Hearing Jaromir Jagr talk Tuesday, hearing him say the Rangers will be his first choice and that change is not something he embraces, reminded me of a story from the dark Rangers days.

The pre-lockout era, when Glen Sather's free-agent follies and trades netted every on-the-decline NHL star, it seemed. Vladimir Malakhov, one of Sather's first bad signings in 2000, was asked by someone in the Rangers front office to help woo Darius Kasparaitis, who was the prize of the 2002 summer free-agency crop among defensemen.

No, really. You can look it up.

Anyway, Malakhov put in the call to his buddy Kasparaitis and reported back thusly: "I tell him, it's great playing here, they treat you great. He says, whoever gives me most money, that's where I go."

That, of course, was the Rangers, who never got outbid in the pre-cap era, and never got a sniff of the playoffs for seven years until the NHL put the cap in place. So that's lesson No. 1 when it comes to breaking the bank for one guy.

Jagr is 36. He proved, with a burst of energy and effort over the final three weeks of the regular season and through 10 playoff games, that he is still among the game's elite. He is also, as noted here before, among the game's great individual thinkers, hardly ever reining in his thoughts or feelings.

He said New York holds a special place for him, and I can bet that the chants of "Jagr! Jagr!" when he provided the spark in the Game 4 win over the Penguins at the Garden will stay with him.

But we all know what free agency is about. And, though I try not to be too cynical these days, it's hard not to see what Jagr's play over the last two months was about. If he were a 15-year right-handed starter or a 15-year wide receiver, we'd call that stretch run a play for a new deal.

So it is with Jagr, despite what this city and the Rangers mean to him. Once July 1 rolls around, some team with room under the estimated $55-million cap will think he's worth more to their Cup dreams than the Rangers do.

This is also a two-way street now, not like it used to be for the Rangers. Sather will have a decent amount of cap room to work with, but the Rangers' needs go deeper than re-signing their captain. A power-play quarterback from the point - whether that's a puck-moving defenseman or a versatile forward who can play Scott Gomez's wing - and a bruising defenseman are the needs Tom Renney outlined Tuesday.

Jagr sat down for a 20-minute chat back in March. He talked then about a lot of the things he's said recently - that he owes his career to his parents and he wants to be near them eventually, and that he would like to play a more open style. No secrets there.

He also said this: "Where you play, it's not such a big deal. It's hockey, the same everywhere. You have nicer places to go and eat and see in New York, but it's still hockey."

Translation: Whoever gives him most money, that's where he goes.