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Jaromir Jagr News: Penguins Withdraw Offer

It appears as though Jaromir Jagr's indecision has cost him the opportunity to return to the Pittsburgh Penguins. In a press release, Penguins general manager Ray Shero announced that the contract offer to Jagr has been withdrawn. He said in the release that the Penguins didn't want to "get involved in a free agent bidding war," so they are going to move in a different direction.

With the Penguins out of the picture, the Detroit Red Wings and Montreal Canadiens are the only two NHL teams known to have offered Jagr a deal. Jagr still has an offer to return to the KHL for another year, but Petr Svoboda, Jagr's agent, said something drastic would have to happen for Jagr to head back to Russia. Perhaps the Penguins taking themselves out of the Jagr sweepstakes could be that drastic development.

What is clear is Jagr needs to make up his mind and pick a team before more offers are pulled. By playing around and moving his decision from Wednesday to Thursday to sometime this weekend, he cost himself the chance to finish his career in Pittsburgh. As far as we know, he has not cost himself a chance to play with the Red Wings or Canadiens, but I'm sure patience is running out for those teams as well.

Based on this latest development, I would expect Jagr's sense of urgency to make a decision to increase, so hopefully we will find out something definitive on Friday.