There’s been some slight hand-wringing in Philadelphia recently as Jaromir Jagr artfully dodged questions about his future with the Flyers.
Well rest easy, Philly faithful. CSN Philadelphia’s Tim Panaccio has some good news.
Panaccio spoke with Jagr today, and No. 68 sounded quite definitive about re-signing with the Flyers.
“If I play good? I don’t think it’s going to be a problem because, from my side, I’m happy,” he said. “I like this team too much. I don’t want to go anywhere.”
Jagr has stated on numerous occasions how much he likes the current Flyers team. He seems to be energized playing with such a young collection of talent -- James van Riemsdyk, Wayne Simmonds, Brayden Schenn, Sean Couturier, Jakub Voracek and Sergei Bobrovsky are all 23 or younger -- and has raved about playing on a line with Claude Giroux and Scott Hartnell.
That said, this isn’t just an on-ice thing. Jagr seems to enjoy the Flyers off the ice as well.
“It’s like a family and it’s not like that everywhere,” Jagr said. “There’s a lot of places guys don’t like each other and have to come to [work] because that is their job. I don’t want that.
“Everything is good here and nobody is panicking and that is what I like,” he continued. “We lose but coach has confidence. We don’t panic, we don’t switch lines. Our line didn’t play good for four or five games and nobody panicked. Coach told us we had to play better but no one panicked.”
Jagr is currently on a one-year, $3.3 million contract. Considering he’s scoring at almost a point-a-game clip, that’s a pretty solid deal -- Carolina’s Eric Staal has the same number of points (34) despite playing in 10 more games, and his cap hit is $8.25 million -- so it’s very likely Jagr could command more money elsewhere.
Not that he’s looking for it.
“Can you buy happiness for two years?” Jagr asked. “Are you gonna take a risk to go somewhere else and not be happy? I want to be happy.
“I want to come to work and be happy.”