and Bryz’s 3.44 GAA is better? and, giving a guy a start and getting shut out 1-0, then repeatedly pulling every goalie over and over every period isn’t “giving someone a shot”.

“And uh…theres a big difference between bob and MAF. Before this season, no one even knew who bob was. ”

and by “no one” i’ll assume you’re excluding the flyers staff, who were considering drafting him, but didn’t because of the lack of a transfer agreement with russia not guaranteeing that he would ever show up. did you know Malkin had to steal his passport back from magnatigorsk while on a road trip to western europe and sneak away from the team after missing an entire year? yeah, after seeing pittsburgh go through all that, the flyers were a little uneasy about drafting russians under certain circumstances.

“Bob can’t speak english, was it not smart to bring in a solid goalie in bryz, who speaks fluent russian, to help bob out with his game? ”

Fleury didn’t speak english, and still is horrible at it. there are plenty of other russian speaking CHEAP players in the league, spending $5.67M on a translator is a horrible idea.

as for your next comments, are you arguing with me, or yourself?

you say: “And to assist you in getting your facts straight, Jagr was a replacement for Leino, and had nothing to do with the carter and richards trades. ”

you said: “your philly example sounds cool and all, but the flyers wouldn’t have had cap space for jagr if they didnt make those trades.”

which is it? cause once you figure out which position you support, i’ll let you know if we disagree or not.

“when we have over 20 million in cap already alligated towards defensemen, we should drop another 3-5 million on another defenseman, leaving them with 32 million to sign 12 forwards.”

alligated? did they reach out and snatch it with their arms on a sort of chomping motion or what?

well, since that was my third(though better than 2nd) option, behind keeping both richards and carter, and adding jagr.

“Thank god your not a GM”

i know, what a horrible idea it is to spend that much $ on D, but since your GM already did it, i was just trying to allocate it better, instead of blowing all $5.67M on one guy* who has a rep as a head case** and leaving him hung out to dry when the mid-30′s defensive core gets tired in the 3rd and in march/april, i was suggesting getting three solid guys in the prime of their careers, who would make every goalie behind them look better. you don’t even need to get all 3 d-men, you could get two, and spend the rest on a decent forward, but your GM likely would have blown that $ on Max Talbot and his 20 goals over the last 2 seasons.

*one guy that is apparently mostly going to be a translator/coach?
**last time he didn’t like the situation, he threatened to go back to the KHL, now you have that guy influencing your young stud goaltender, AND Jagr who can say “oh, sure, KHL not bad”

Bob can’t speak english, was it not smart to bring in a solid goalie in bryz, who speaks fluent russian, to help bob out with his game?

And to assist you in getting your facts straight, Jagr was a replacement for Leino, and had nothing to do with the carter and richards trades. And I guess your idea makes perfect sense right…when we have over 20 million in cap already alligated towards defensemen, we should drop another 3-5 million on another defenseman, leaving them with 32 million to sign 12 forwards.

Thank god your not a GM

as for the example for the flyers:

the money saved trading richards and carter was wiped out by signing breezy(not even gonna try and spell it right now), Lilja, Talbot and the cap hits for the players they acquired in return for those 2 guys. in other words. Jagr’s contract was above and beyond that money. so yes, you COULD have had Jagr and Carter and Richards, if you just put a little faith in the 2010 playoff GAA leader who had 3 playoff shutouts that year(leighton) or given Bobrovsky a shot to grow, the kid’s only 22(prior to age 26, breezy had 2 NHL games with 1 win). what if Pittsburgh gave up on Fleury when he struggled early on? but instead, your GM had to go out and blow up the team so he can acquire a good (in the regular season) aging(but still in his prime, 31) goaltender who struggles in the playoffs. the last 2 years breezy is 3-8 with a 3.44 GAA and a 4.36 GAA. and his playoff GAA has gotten steadily worse each year as he went from backup to starter, 1.46, then 2.25 the years before the previous two.

for reference, leighton was 2.46 last year, Bob was 3.23 this year in the playoffs.

but, if you really insist on getting Breezy, you could have still kept ONE of those 2 centers(afterall, only ONE center can play with Jagr at a time), gotten Breezy, and gotten Jagr. or better yet, gotten rid of one of those 2 centers, NOT gotten breezy, and spent that $5M on getting a young(er) defender who could help out (or two), like Ian White, randy jones(again) and Cam barker, all 3 of them = about $5M.

Gross difference = $1.3M

Subtract tax @ ~40%

Net difference = ~$700k

Why is it being portrayed that the entire Penguins fanbase is in some sort of heart-wrenching anguish over this signing? The general feeling is that we do think of how Jagr went about things was kinda a dick move. However, we also feel that the Pens made a fair offer, and it would have been nice to see him back in Pittsburgh to mend some bridges and help win some games. But, not at the expense of overpaying or catering to a prima donna. This is what the Flyers have done, so best of luck to them in this mistake. Disappointed it didn’t work out (on our terms, not his)? Sure. Ready to jump off the 6th street bridge? Far from it.

The offer Shero presented Jagr was more than fair for a 40 year old winger. Especially for the opportunity to win, not to mention the emotional baggage that comes with Jagr.

Essentially Philadelphia has traded away two of their top six players for Max Talbot and a washed up old man.

I wanted to see Jagr come back to Pittsburgh and make amends but the way he handled this was up there with Lebron James’ live T.V. debut to screw Cleveland over. 1.3 million is nothing in the NHL especially for someone who made 100 times that in his lifetime. Maybe if he didn’t have such a gambling problem he wouldn’t be so greedy.

All in all I think this is a win for Pittsburgh fans, let Jagr go and play for Philly and give the next prospect in the Pens organization the number 68. Jagr’s jersey won’t be retired in Pittsburgh.

I loved him when he was here and was wiling to give him a second chance now Jagr is dead to me.

and as for an honest assessment of the flyers choices:

if Jagr had joined the flyers, as their lineup stood 10 days ago, it would be scary. he could let carter or richards eat up the hard minutes, and he could finish, it would have been much the same had he joined pittsburgh, with Staal(a defensive minded, 6’4″ lefty) pivoting between him and Malkin.

he would have been a good fit in detroit also, for example, replacing cleary with zetterberg and franzen, think how scary that 3-some would be knowing that Jagr can finish at least twice as often as Daniel “i missed the open net from between the circles” Cleary.

but instead, he’s going to a team that just got RID of their captain and 2 of their leading scorers. and is full of aging veterans like 36 yr old Pronger, Briere, 33, Lapierrie, 36, Lilja, 35, Shelley, 35, Timonen, 36

Yes, he’s been gone a decade, and yes he was a free agent allowed to make his own decision. However….

He’s been angling for a while now to come back and play for the Penguins. He’s even gone so far as to say that he would play for them for league minimum. He had multiple conversations with Ray Shero over the last few months which progressed so far that he eventually spoke directly with Mario Lemieux.

What was said between the two, who knows? But seeing how far this thing went, one can only logically derive that he led Mario to believe he wanted to come back to the Penguins.

This would’ve been good on a number of fronts. Most of all, he would’ve been welcomed back into ‘the family’; maybe had his jersey number hoisted to the rafters some day and even had his number retired.

Instead, he essentially disrespected Mario (who is one of the most highly-regarded athletes in the city’s history – and that’s saying a lot when you’re talking about the town the Steelers play in). And he did it in front of the entire world.

In the end it looks like he basically used the Penguins as negotiation leverage.

I’ve always stuck up for Jagr. Even after the way he left in 2001, I defended him and reminded fans that this guy carried our team during the times when Mario was either hurt or retired.

But it saddens me to see what he’s done here. He threw away his entire legacy in this city for what will probably amount to less than $700,000 after taxes. That’s a drop in the bucket for him when you consider everything he’s earned over the course of his career.

And to do it by going to the Flyers? I don’t think Penguins fans will dislike them more for signing him. We’ll dislike him more for choosing to go there.

He’ll never be welcome in Pittsburgh again. He’ll go down as the most hated athlete in the city’s history.

And there’s absolutely no reason it had to happen this way.