Daniel Sprong is only 18 and already has an NHL goal on his resume.
Just 725 more, and he’ll catch Jaromir Jagr.
Sure, there’s a significant gap between their career totals, but that’s to be expected.
After all, Jagr scored 264 before Sprong was born.
And, despite being less than four months shy of his 44th birthday, Jagr looks as if he just might get that many more while Sprong is in the league.
Jagr, who joined Florida in a trade with New Jersey Feb. 26, has four goals in five games this season, pushing his career total to 726, fifth most in NHL history.
“He’s producing at a better rate better than most players do ever in their whole career,” Penguins left winger Chris Kunitz said.
Going into the Panthers’ game against the Penguins tonight at Consol Energy Center, this is where Jagr ranks on some of the league’s other all-time lists:
• Winning goals: 1st, 129.
• Overtime goals: 1st, 19.
• Points: 4th, 1,809.
• Assists: 6th, 1,083.
• Shots: 3rd, 5,293.
• Games played: 11th, 1,555.
• Power-play goals: 13th [tied], 205.
“He’s one of the most unique talents, probably, the game has ever seen,” said Penguins center Matt Cullen, Jagr’s teammate with the New York Rangers in 2006-07.
“His size and his ability to handle the puck and see the ice and make plays, he’s just a unique player. I don’t think the game has ever seen anyone like that, with that kind of size and that kind of ability, and may never [again].”
Jagr, who is 6 feet 3, 230 pounds, broke into the NHL with the Penguins in 1990, and spent 11 seasons here before management, in the pre-salary cap era, no longer could afford him and traded him to Washington.
He’s switched teams a lot — the Panthers are his eighth NHL club — but some parts of his game haven’t changed much over the past quarter-century.
He remains a powerful skater with great instincts and a hair-trigger release. And mariners still can circumnavigate the globe in less time — and cover less distance in the process — than it takes a defender to get around Jagr’s backside and try to take the puck from him.
“I go into the corner with him, and his butt is about chest-high on me,” Cullen said. “He’s just a big, strong guy, and he’s so effective at protecting it.”
Jagr is not, of course, the veritable force of nature he was while piling up 50-plus-goal seasons and NHL scoring championships — not on most nights, anyway — but he’s nowhere near ready for a rec league, either.
Genetics might have something to do with that, but so does Jagr’s longtime commitment to fitness and conditioning.
“I’ve never seen somebody so dedicated to the game,” Cullen said. “I was always so impressed by that, and I respected that a lot. I’d get to the rink, usually [as] one of the first guys, and he would be there.”
There has been a long-running debate between segments of the Penguins fan base about whether the franchise should retire his number, but that might be a non-issue.
Active players don’t get their numbers retired, and Jagr has given no indication he plans to leave the game anytime soon. And unless the quality of his play declines, there should continue to be a market for his services.
“You think about how much the game has changed during his time in the league, and he’s remained effective, no matter how the game is played,” Cullen said. “It seems like he has a lot left.”
Dave Molinari: dmolinari@post-gazette.com and Twitter @MolinariPG.
First Published: October 20, 2015, 4:00 a.m.
