Is there anyone as legendary as Jaromir Jagr? Honestly, at this rate we expect the man to play well into his 50s because there are really no signs of him slowing down.
Sure, he's probably won't match his 66-point output from last season, but 31 points in 54 games for a 45-year-old is absolutely insane.
Also, you read that correctly, Jagr is 45 as Wednesday is his birthday, and it's incredible to think on a day like today that he debuted in the NHL in 1990, well before some of the game's brightest stars were even born.
In honour of his 45th birthday, ESPN asked players from the past and current players about their earliest memories of the Jagr, and their memories are incredible to say the least.
Eric Lindros
"I'm thinking back to world juniors when I was 16, it was 1989, our Canadian team went to watch the Czechs play one day, everyone had eyes on Jagr. As soon as he got on the ice, nobody is watching anything else. Our world junior team was glued to watching him on every shift. Just everything about him, it's like he did everything without leaving a footprint. I just remember that, our whole team just mesmerized by him."
David Backes
"I don't know if I've had many face-to-face conversations with him, but [my first memory is] NHL '94 on Super Nintendo as a 10-year-old. I did pretty darn good. The Penguins were dynamite in that game, and if you went across the crease as Jagr on your backhand, you scored every time. He's still doing that."
Trevor Daley
"The mullet. The hair, of course. The hair, his number, the swagger he had about him. Just as a young kid growing up watching the Pittsburgh Penguins, every time you got to see Jaromir Jagr, he was just different than anyone else. Obviously, I had the chance to be around him and spend some time with him [while with the Dallas Stars]. He's so dedicated to his craft and what he does. You pick that up right away about him. You look at his age and what he's doing today, it's all because of how much he enjoys the game, how much he loves the game and then the work that he puts into the game is why he's still playing. In Dallas, he lived right next to the practice rink, and after games he would go back to the practice rink, open it up and make the Zamboni driver pass him pucks. Nothing really surprises me with that guy. He's just a guy that really loves the game, and it doesn't surprise me he's still playing."
Brendan Shanahan
Getty Images/Kevin C. Kox
"I just think it's interesting how he came back with such an appreciation for the NHL and the game. I think going away for a couple of years resparked the love for the game and an appreciation for the NHL. He just seems to be having so much more fun with it than he was before he left. ... When you play a long time in the NHL, there's a point in your career where you're like, 'I've seen this all before.' He stepped away from the NHL, but what makes him so unique is that he was so talented, he was able to come back. Not that he was retired overseas, but I think it was good for his body, good for his mind, and he's just like a kid again."
Jeff O'Neill
Getty Images/Dave Sandford
"My first Jagr memory was that playoff goal he scored against Chicago when he deked everybody out. That's when you're like, 'Wow, this guy is a special talent.' Then when I went to Hartford as a rookie, Paul Maurice took over as coach after 7-8 games, and he put me with Brendan Shanahan and Nelson Emerson, and whenever we played Pittsburgh, we got the Lemieux-Jagr matchup -- and it was hell. I knew that Shanny and Emerson hated me because we never touched the puck the whole game. They were playing shinny hockey with us. ... But you know, it still boggles my mind that I've been retired 10 years, and Jagr is still playing."
Roman Polak
"I just remember in early years he was taller than everybody else. He was big. He had that big ass out there and protected the puck, he was strong, he could skate, just a great player overall. Long stick, long reach, long hair. ... He was big in Czech. Everybody still talks about Jagr in Czech. He's still big. If he tried to be president of the country, he would be. Everybody just loves him. At age 40, he found out there's a Facebook out there, and he's done a pretty good job on the Facebook, too [laughs]."
Ray Ferraro
"My first recollection is of him at the [1990] draft with this really long hair and that awkward Penguins hat on. Playing against him was instantly impossible -- he was too big and had too big a reach, plus an amazing skill set. I always felt he was such a great passer that is overshadowed by his scoring ability, and then all of a sudden he was among the best scorers every year."
For more stories, check out the full piece from Scott Burnside, Pierre LeBrun, Joe McDonald, Craig Custance on ESPN.
Happy birthday to a legend.
(H/T: ESPN)
