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I am hoping and praying that this story is not true. It is well known that Omsk in Russia has coveted Jaromir Jagr and have been trying hard to sign him and bring him over there. Most reports have been saying that the Rangers have been leaning towards bringing him back. Well now we can think otherwise with good reason. It is now June 19th, one day from the draft and one of the greatest players of all-time still has not received a contract from really the only team in America he wants to play for. John Dellapina of the Daily News has recently talked about this same topic over at his blog.

Of course, that hardly answers all the questions. It’s possible that Bardin will meet with Jagr’s European representative. Anything’s possible regarding No. 68, whose status for next season is going from unpredictable to bizarre.
Jagr told me again today that he hasn’t heard anything from Rangers GM Glen Sather since they spoke on the day the team broke up for the season. While such a cat-and-mouse act is long-standing standard operating procedure for Sather, it makes little sense in this case.

Not only can Jagr sign with Omsk-Avangard at any time, there seems to be little to be gained by making him sit and wonder whether the Rangers want him back. His personal experience (see: Washington 2000-2004) is that things don’t go well when he’s playing for a team that doesn’t fully believe in him. And every day that goes by without the Rangers reaching out to him has to make him wonder even more.

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