New York Islanders Should Not Offer Jaromir Jagr A Contract

After the first day of free agency most of the big names are gone, except for a select few. Although, the New York Islanders should still avoid those names.

The New York Islanders made no significant moves yesterday, which I was absolutely fine with as the free agent class was a poor one and players were getting overpaid left and right. Nick Bonino got over $16 million, Justin Williams got $9 million, Martin Hanzal‘s new cap hit is nearly $5 million, Garth Snow made the right choice to stay out of the signings.

Although, now there is rumbling amongst Islanders fans to bring in Jaromir Jagr. My question is a simple one: Why?

We’ll start with age, Jagr will be 45-years old next year. If you thought giving a 37-year old Joe Thornton a contract was bad then what’s it like offering a 45-year-old a contract. Yes, it’d likely be a one-year deal but at what price?

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Last year he had a $4 million cap hit for the Florida Panthers. On the season he put up 16 goals and 46 points which is still productive, especially when you consider the age, but one thing is for sure father time is undefeated.

Eventually, it’s going to catch up to Jagr and he won’t nearly be as productive as he is now. I for one, would not be willing to risk $4 million against the cap hoping that this isn’t the year that Jagr begins to show his age.

Now that age and cap hit are out of the way, where’s he going to play? Or who is he going to replace in the lineup? If the season started right now the lineup likely looks something like this:

Lee – Tavares – Eberle

Ladd – Nelson – Ho-Sang

Beauvillier – Barzal – Bailey

Chimera – Cizikas – Clutterbuck

Are you really going to insert him in instead of Mathew Barzal or Anthony Beauvillier who are a huge part of the Islanders future? Plus, if you combine their ages they’d still be five-years younger than Jagr.

Even if this isn’t the year Jagr rapidly declines production wise, let’s say he gave you 15 goals and 40 points which is probably a fair guess, it’s still just a one-year rental in all likelihood. Do you really want to block two young budding players for a 45-year old rental? I certainly don’t.

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I’m not saying that the Isles lineup is perfect, it’s really not, but the only players that should be brought in here to play over Barzal and Beauvillier should be players in their prime, not has-been band-aid fixes.