Jagr set to go to Rangers
TSN.ca Staff
1/23/2004
TSN has learned that the Washington Capitals have worked out a deal to trade All-Star forward Jaromir Jagr to the New York Rangers in exchange for forward Anson Carter, pending league approval by a trade call.
TSN has also learned the Capitals are picking up approximately $20 million of the remaining $44 million on the contract after this season. Sources have told TSN Jagr has agreed to defer $1 million a year for the balance of the contract. That money is deferred with interest and guaranteed.
Before the restructuring of his contract, Jagr was scheduled to earn $11 million a year in each of the next four seasons beyond this one. There is a club option for a fifth year, also at $11 million, but there ways the fifth year could become guaranteed to Jagr in the event of the following:
-if he scores 40 goals or 90 points and his team wins the first round of the playoffs in the final year of the contract.
-if he scores 80 goals or 180 points in the final two years of the contract and his team wins two rounds of the playoffs.
-if he wins a major award in the final three seasons of the deal or his team wins two Stanley Cups in that time.
The deal between the Caps and Rangers was effectively agreed to yesterday, sources said, but the re-structuring of the contract had to be negotiated this morning between the Rangers and Jagr's agent.
Now Jagr will make $10 million a year for the balance of the contract with $1 million per year deferred with interest. Of that $10 million per year, the Caps are picking up about half for the four year period.
When the Capitals and the Rangers broached the subject in late November, Washington was believed to be willing to assume about $20 million of Jagr's contract.
A six-time first team All-Star, Jagr, 31, is second on the Capitals in scoring this season with 16 goals and 29 assists for 45 points in 45 games.
Carter, who led Canada to a gold medal at the IIHF World Hockey Championship last spring, returns to the team where he made his NHL debut. Carter played 19 games with the Capitals in 1996-97 after being traded from the Colorado Avalanche.
In eight NHL seasons with the Rangers, Capitals, Edmonton Oilers and Boston Bruins, the 29-year old has 153 goals and 174 assists. He has 10 goals and seven assists in 45 games with the Rangers this season.
Jagr has not provided the payoff expected when the Capitals made him the highest paid player in the league. The team failed the reach the playoffs in his first season and was eliminated in the first round by Tampa Bay last year. Attendance has sagged for a franchise that was already losing some $20 million per year.
Jagr has fought sporadic slumps and injuries to average about one point per game with the Capitals, but those numbers are well down from his superstar years with the Penguins.
More to follow.