Jágr, Jaromír

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Jaromír Jágr, 1972–, Czech ice hockey player, b. Kladno. Jágr played professional hockey in Czechoslovakia as a teenager, and joined the Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League in 1990. During his first season there, he scored 27 goals; he was an important factor in the Penguin's Stanley Cup wins in 1991 and 1992. Widely considered the sport's finest player by the beginning of the 21st cent., he also was key to the Czech Republic's Olympic gold medal in 1998 and was instrumental to his national team's Ice Hockey World Championships in 2005 and 2010. Jágr has played with the NHL's Penguins (1990–2001), Washington Capitals (2001–2), New York Rangers (2003–8), Philadelphia Flyers (2011–12), Dallas Stars (2012–13), Boston Bruins (2013), and New Jersey Devils (2013–) as well as with the Avangard Omsk (2008–11) of Europe's Kontinental Hockey League. He has been NHL's highest-scoring player five times (1995, 1998–2001), more than any non-Canadian player, and scored his 700th NHL career goal in 2014.