St. Louis Blues Trade Prospect: Jaromir Jagr Evaluation

The St. Louis Blues are being listed as potential partners for some interesting names. Of course, there are names out there that might be best for the team to stay away from.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but there is a very slim possibility the St. Louis Blues could acquire Jaromir Jagr. That sounds vaguely familiar, doesn’t it.

It should. There was a possibility of Jagr becoming a member of the Blues way back in September.

Now, there exists a scenario where he could don the Note again. The question is whether that would even be a good idea at this point.

Back in the early fall, it made sense that some were on board with the idea of adding the future Hall of Famer. The year prior, at age 44, he had scored 16 goals and had 44 points. The season before that, he scored 27 goals and 66 points.

There was still a thought among many that his time was not up. If you were not going to have to spend much on him, why not give it a shot.

The injury issue also played a large factor in the Blues interest. Almost a third of their planned starting lineup was hurt to begin the year and the Blues were depending on a lot of unknowns.

In the end, things seemed to work out. Jagr went to Calgary citing having a relationship with their coach and wanting to play with Calgary. The Blues got off to one of the hottest starts in franchise history.

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Things went south from there, for both sides though. St. Louis hit a wall in December, seeming to have had one injury too many.

Jagr missed much of the first half of the season, only playing 22 games halfway through the NHL season. Through that same amount of time, he’d only scored one goal and contributed seven points. That’s not exactly the stuff legends, which Jagr is, are made of.

There are multiple reasons for Jagr’s decline in production. He started the year with an injury, which kept him out for awhile. That didn’t allow much chemistry to be built with his new teammates, which was a bigger issue after missing all of training camp. Lastly, it could just be age catching up with him.

Every athlete thinks they have the secret to beat Father Time. Unfortunately, he is undefeated and always wins.

So, why would the Blues want to risk it? The answer is, why not?

Much like the possibility in the summer, I am not in favor of a deal like this. However, it cannot be brushed off out of hand.

Any deal would need to be predicated on passing a physical and we are not talking about your average sports physical. He needs to prove he healthy and ready to play.

Anything less than an immediate ability to step on the ice would need to be turned down. They would also need to run this one by some of the guys in the locker room.

There is no need to interview every single player. A talk with the team stars and leadership would be necessary to guage how well they think he might fit in with the locker room.

The other big issue with a potential deal of this nature is price. Nothing against Jagr as a name, but anything more than a draft pick, by itself, or a mid or low-level prospect is too much to ask.

You don’t give up the promise of some of these young guys coming up for the potential of a 45 year old, no matter what the name.

To be fair, there have been no real, solid rumors of any interest on the Blues side. The idea mainly came from an SBNation article outlining the Flames wish to depart with Jagr.

Next: Evaluating Maz Pacioretty As A Blues Trade Prospect

All that said, unless you give up next to nothing and maybe even convince Calgary to eat some salary, I’m not interested. Even as a third line player, it just does not seem to fit any longer.

The Blues need some help, but time seems to have caught up to Jagr before he could provide it. Once time catches up, it does not let go.

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