Jaromir Jagr just won’t stop.
He scored goal number 731 on Thursday evening against the Washington Capitals. That ties him with Marcel Dionne for fourth all-time in goals.
It comes after eight goalless games for Jagr, who now has nine goals on the year. That’s a 26-goal pace. Not bad for a 43-year-old winger who scored 17 goals last season and recently said that he’s too old to play in the All-Star Game.
On his next goal he’ll take fourth place to himself and it will bring him within nine goals of tying Brett Hull for third all-time.
Jagr has missed two games this year, but if he keeps up his current scoring pace and doesn’t miss any more games, he’ll tie Hull before the season is out. Even if he doesn’t continue on his solid pace, he could tie Hull this season, but that would mean he scores at least two more goals than he did last year.
Either way, that might be the ceiling on how far he’ll climb. The next step up is Gordie Howe’s 801 career goals.
On the other hand, who knows how long he can keep going. He’s been very effective this year and it’s easy to see how he’s on a NHL team again next season.
It’s amazing to think how Jagr is already pretty close to Howe and that he’s probably there or above Howe already if he didn’t go play in Russia for a few years in the middle of his career.
In addition to climbing the goal ranks, Jagr is sitting in fourth all-time in points with 1,823, 27 points back of Gordie Howe in third place. His 1,092 assists are sixth all-time, 43 back from Paul Coffey in fifth place.
Watch Jagr’s milestone goal here: