Before he signed his one-year deal with the Dallas Stars, Jaromir Jagr received a similar offer from the Columbus Blue Jackets in an effort to add a big-name offensive weapon to a lineup that was lacking them.
Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch passed along the details of the offer on Wednesday evening (an offer that general manager Scott Howson confirmed to him), a deal that would have paid Jagr $4.2 million for one year.
Jagr obviously did not accept, and instead agreed to a one-year, $4.5 million contract with the Stars on July 3 after spending the 2011-12 season with the Philadelphia Flyers.
While seeing Jagr in a Blue Jackets sweater would have been a bit odd (not that seeing him in a Stars sweater won't take some getting used to), he does have at least one connection to the Columbus organization. Craig Patrick, a senior adviser in the Blue Jackets front office, was the long-time general manager of the Pittsburgh Penguins and the man who drafted Jagr with the No. 5 overall pick in 1990.
Patrick ran the Penguins during Jagr's entire tenure in Pittsburgh and was the man who eventually traded him to the Washington Capitals prior to the 2001-02 season.
In 73 games with the Flyers last year Jagr scored 19 goals and added 35 assists, a point total that would have been third on the Blue Jackets.
Columbus could certainly have used the offensive upgrade Jagr would have provided as the Jackets were one of the worst offensive teams last season. The Blue Jackets also lost a large chunk of their offense this summer when they traded forward Rick Nash to the New York Rangers for a collection of players that included Brandon Dubinsky, Artem Anisimov and young defenseman Tim Erixon.
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