Trading Up

George McPhee answered the telephone call from Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Craig Patrick while on the beach at Hilton Head Island, S.C., last week, squeezing it in between two critical appointments—jumping into the waves and building sand castles with his four-year-old daughter, Grayson, and two-year-old son, Graham. Patrick was calling to say he was ready to make the Jaromir Jagr trade. McPhee, the Washington Capitals' general manager, was ecstatic. But first he needed Ted Leonsis, the AOL mogul and the team's managing partner, to sign off on the deal that would cost the Caps nearly $16 million in 2001-02, a big step for a club that says it lost $20 million last season.

There was one other problem: McPhee didn't have a pen or a slip of paper to jot down Patrick's number. With a resourcefulness that should land him either executive-of-the-year consideration or a Palm Pilot, McPhee wrote Patrick's office number in the sand with his finger.

With Leonsis's approval, McPhee completed the stunning trade that moved the Capitals into the elite rank of Eastern Conference teams but disturbingly underscored a skewed hockey economy. Washington acquired the five-time NHL scoring champion in the prime of his career for three middling prospects and $4.9 million cash. What's more, the Capitals had to outbid only one other team, the New York Rangers. Jagr, the most dynamic player in the game, was up for grabs, and it was strictly a buyer's market. Even McPhee fretted about the league's sand-castle economics. "We're all concerned when the best player in the world is available and the market is so restricted," McPhee said last Saturday, three days after the trade was announced. "We're delighted it went our way, but it's hard to believe."

The best explanation for the apparent apathy can be found not by recalling Jagr's occasionally childish behavior—he's 29, although sometimes he acts as if he's nine—but, in classic Washington terms, by following the money. Jagr will make $9.5 million next season and $10.2 million in 2002-03 before being eligible for unrestricted free agency. His contract simply was too rich for many teams in an increasingly stratified NHL. "For us to afford his contract," Carolina Hurricanes general manager Jim Rutherford says, "we'd have to increase ticket prices $20 across the board, or we'd have to attract 6,000 more fans per game. Either way, we'd still lose $15 million."

An unprecedented glut of quality unrestricted free agents, especially at forward, further depressed the market for Jagr. Even the deep-pocketed Dallas Stars chose to go the free-agent route (signing center Pierre Turgeon for five years at about $6 million per season) to avoid ceding important players in the trade market. McPhee first trolled for free agents too, but ultimately got the best of both worlds, acquiring Jagr without touching his roster. The Capitals shipped to Pittsburgh three. 20-year-olds from their system, all of whom were 1999 draft picks: center Kris Beech, who is blessed with good hands and vision but not great strength; Michal Sivek, who projects as a second-or third-line forward; and Ross Lupaschuk, a defenseman with a big shot. If history is any guide—consider the grab bag of players and prospects involved in the trades of Wayne Gretzky in 1988 and '96—the three new Penguins will not leave much of a footprint in the sands of time.

Since the early 1980s Washington has been an earnest, hard-working team with little flair. Except for right wing Peter Bondra, who twice has led the league in goals, Washington on the attack has been as entertaining as seeing a man shoveling snow out of his driveway with a tablespoon. In their first-round playoff loss to Pittsburgh in April, the Capitals didn't score an even-strength goal in regulation until Game 6. Jagr instantly alters the equation. Even though he had a subpar season, starting and finishing poorly, Jagr's 52 goals and 121 points earned him his fourth straight scoring title, a feat previously accomplished only by Gretzky, Phil Esposito and Gordie Howe.

For McPhee, Jagr is the bridge from playoff team to Stanley Cup contender. For Leonsis, Jagr comes with benefits besides those that he hopes will offset the $16 million cost next season—Jagr's salary plus the $1.2 million the Capitals will pay the other player acquired in the deal, defenseman Frantisek Kucera, plus the $4.9 million Washington is sending the cash-starved Penguins. Jagr provides buzz, which is a valued commodity in the nation's capital and by last weekend had already translated into 600 new season-ticket orders (the Capitals were to announce a 10% to 15% increase in season-ticket prices on Wednesday) as well as Page One treatment in The Washington Post, whose placement of its Capitals coverage sometimes rankles coach Ron Wilson. Jagr is an investment in credibility for a team that was swept in its only trip to the Cup finals, in 1998, and his arrival will help recoup expenditures for Lincoln Holdings LLC, which owns the team and 44% of the company that controls the Washington Wizards. With Wizards part owner Michael Jordan contemplating a return to the court and Jagr on the ice for the Capitals, Comcast, which has the broadcast rights for both teams, is renegotiating the teams' cable package.

Of course, Jagr is a package all by himself. In Pittsburgh he was not only a handful for defensemen faced with a quick, strong and inventive winger, but also for the front office and coaches. In 2000-01 he twice asked to be traded before owner-mentor Mario Lemieux returned to the ice last December and gave the entire team a lift. Then Jagr seemed distracted during the playoffs after Lemieux and the Penguins intimated that they would have to trade him for financial reasons. "Now that we won another round and have more money, do you think they'll keep me?" a half-joking, half-wistful Jagr said to teammate Bob Boughner as they drove home from the Pittsburgh airport after the Penguins had eliminated the Buffalo Sabres in the second round.

Previously Jagr had chafed under former Pittsburgh coach Kevin Constantine's defensive system, and early last season he was openly contemptuous of coach Ivan Hlinka's left-wing lock. But the Capitals should be a good fit. Wilson's system presses defensive responsibility on his centers, allowing the wingers to roam. Despite some run-ins with Bondra, Wilson has been mostly successful in handling star players. While with the Anaheim Mighty Ducks from 1993-94 through '96-97, Wilson extracted a 50-goal season from Teemu Selanne and some of Paul Kariya's best work.

Jagr, who was in the Czech Republic last week, seems comfortable with his world turned upside down, but NHL general managers are still unsettled by the aftershocks. "This trade says, Here is one of our premier players being given away for substantially less than he is worth," says Mike Smith of the Chicago Blackhawks. "Only two teams bid for Jagr? That tells us we need a restructuring to get things back in line."