Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet says he’d love to bring Jaromir Jagr to Vancouver

Rick Tocchet and Jaromir Jagr won the Stanley Cup together with the 1992 Pittsburgh Penguins.

Now, with the recent news that Jagr intends to finally retire as a player upon the conclusion of the upcoming 2024-25 season, Tocchet appears to have an eye on his former teammate as a potential off-ice consultant in Vancouver.

The reigning Jack Adams Award winner held court with the media at the South Okanagan Events Centre in Penticton on Thursday and remarked on the 52-year-old Jagr finally preparing to hang up his skates.

“He loves the game of hockey,” Tocchet said. “I would love for him to come back here and somehow get back in the game as a teacher or a coach or somebody like that.

“There’s a lot of former guys that you’d love to pick their brains and even hire them and stuff like that. Who knows, down the road, maybe Jagr would be … he’d be definitely a guy who, if he’s interested, I’d be knocking on his door, I’ll tell you that.”

Jagr never played for the Canucks during his long NHL career, but he did spend a brief period of time in Canada when he suited up in 22 games with the Calgary Flames during the 2017-18 season.

Since returning to Czechia in 2018, Jagr has served as a player-owner with the Kladno Knights, helping the club earn a promotion into the top-tier Czech Extraliga and participating in games on an increasingly sporadic basis. The 6’3″ winger will turn 53 in February.

The Penguins originally selected Jagr in the first round (No. 5 overall) of the 1990 NHL Draft. He ultimately appeared in 1,733 games with the Penguins, Washington Capitals, New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers, Dallas Stars, Boston Bruins, New Jersey Devils, Florida Panthers, and Flames during his NHL career, collecting 766 goals and 1,921 points; he added 78 goals and 201 points in 208 playoff contests.

Jagr served as captain of both the Rangers and Penguins, the latter of whom also retired his iconic No. 68 uniform midway through the 2023-24 season. He won the Stanley Cup with the Penguins in his first two NHL seasons and helped the Czech Republic capture Olympic Gold in 1998.