This will be Jaromír Jágr’s last season … “in Kladno for sure”

In his usual cryptic way, Jaromír Jágr made an announcement that seems on the surface to say that the 2024-25 hockey season will be his last as a player. But some are still scratching their heads at the wording he used.

During a promotional event for a special off-ice event he is planning in September, he was asked if this would be his last season.

“In Kladno for sure,” Jágr replied.

“And what does that mean? Would he then possibly play elsewhere?” Czech reporter Zdeněk Janda pondered in his column for iSport.cz. “He didn't want to comment on that. He did not specify whether this will be his last season in the role of owner.”

The latter is an interesting thing to wonder, as Jágr came under heavy criticism from Kladno fans last season for the way he manages the Rytíři club he co-owns.

“It’s hard to say anything now. I’m not 100 percent sure,” said Jágr. “I’ll be happy to say when I have the answers, but now I have nothing on the table. When I know 100 percent how to proceed, I will of course announce it.”

Regardless, most seem to believe that it will indeed be Jágr’s last season as a player. If it is, it seems that he wants to be a full-time player and not what he has been recently. Last season, he played just 15 regular-season games, then after more than two months off, returned to play three games in a qualification series, which Kladno won to remain in the Extraliga. Jágr scored a goal, becoming the oldest professional player ever to do so, but it was his only goal of the season.

“For the last three or four years, my season has been fragmented,” he said. “I played a maximum of 10, 20 games. I started training in November and December and I didn’t play until February, for example. I was in absolutely no shape and was overweight.”

To remedy that, Jágr has apparently hired a personal trainer and is dedicating his summer to getting into the best shape he can possibly be in by the time the season starts, stating confidently: “If I want to train up to six hours a day, I can.”

But how long can he keep that pace up? Jágr will be 53 before next season – his 37th in professional hockey – comes to an end. He seems committed, though. 

“Maybe I want to prove to myself if it’s even possible at my age, if I devote more time to it and try to train like when I was playing in the NHL, to improve even more and play even better, or if it doesn’t matter at all because you can’t stop Father Time.”