Flames officially sign Jaromir Jagr

One of the greatest hockey players of all time will be a Calgary Flame for the next year. The club officially announced the signing of Jaromir Jagr to a one-year contract this afternoon. The event was capped off with the utterly surreal sight of Jagr putting on his Flames jersey – soon to be available at a Flames Fanattic location near you! – and fielding questions from the media.

The only “big” news coming out of the press conference was Jagr’s admission that he’ll need some time to get ready to play.

Jagr has been skating on his own in the Czech Republic, not with a particular team, and so he’s probably not used to the pace. He didn’t really venture to guess a target date for his first game, but I would estimate perhaps next week after the Flames get back from Anaheim. Rather than tip-toe around it, though, it was interesting to hear Jagr flat-out state that he’d need time to get ready.

He also reiterated the report we’ve seen floating around from a Czech newspaper: it’s 99.9% his last season in the NHL, and he kept speaking about his desire to help the team win.

He also joked about his age, responding to a question about playing with younger players with a jab that at his age, everybody’s a younger player. For what it’s worth, Jagr’s career point total is 1,914; the entire combined points total for the 21 skaters currently on Calgary’s roster is just 3,223.