The battle for promotion to Czech hockey’s top division between Kladno and the visiting team from Litvinov did not make international sports headlines last Friday night. But it did feature the long shadow cast behind the home bench by Jaromir Jagr, Kladno’s player-owner and one of the most prolific scorers in hockey history.

Jagr, sidelined by a lingering knee injury, watched his team lose, 2-1, hurting the club’s chances of earning promotion for the first time since being relegated to Czech hockey’s second division four years ago.

Jagr, 46, acknowledged that he did not think he would be here, with the NHL season wrapping up this weekend thousands of kilometres away.

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After remaining unsigned through most of the off-season, he had signed with the Calgary Flames in October, a few days before the start of the season. The Flames were his ninth team in a 24-season NHL career.

But after collecting one goal and six assists in 22 games, Jagr was waived by Calgary on Jan. 28. Shortly thereafter, he returned to Kladno and played a few games with the Knights before aggravating the knee injury.

“I would be more happy if I was in the NHL now, but as a second option, this is the place I want to be,” Jagr said. “I got an opportunity and for whatever reason I didn’t play my best and I got injured.”

With the Czech league season nearing a close, returning from that injury remains Jagr’s primary focus. Only then will he begin plotting where he will play next season.

Jagr said he had no plans to retire and had not ruled out a return to the NHL, where he ranks second on the career points list with 1,921 points. Catching the leader, Wayne Gretzky, is not a motivation; Gretzky has an unreachable 2,857. But Jagr is third in games played (1,733) and goals (766).

“I’m kind of practicing on my own slowly,” he said. “I want to get completely healthy and then see what happens. I don’t want to retire yet. I can always play here. My plan is just to get healthy first and then see how far I can go.”

Until then, Jagr will be a prominent presence around Cez Stadium. The 5,200-seat arena, built in 1959, was where a young Jagr first learned hockey.

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He remains a fixture around the arena even when he is not roaming its halls or navigating its ice. His image is everywhere around the building, be it in an advertisement or a photograph. The arena boards even feature the logo for Jagr Team, the hockey icon’s company that ships equipment to teams around the country. His 24-year-old nephew, Jiri Kalla, also serves as the team’s marketing manager.

The team remained in Kladno only after Jagr’s father, also named Jaromir, acquired the club in 1995 and then ran it for 18 years. The elder Jagr saved the club after its primary owner, the iron works company Hut Poldi, collapsed and closed the local steel mill after the 1989 Velvet Revolution transitioned the country from communist rule to a parliamentary republic.

“We had a huge steel company — almost everybody was working for that company,” the younger Jagr said. “After the revolution, that company went bankrupt, so there was a lot of people moving out of the city. This is the only kind of sport in our city. A lot of families are involved with the hockey, and there’s a lot of kids involved with the hockey. So it’s our responsibility to keep going.”

In 1990, one week after the newly-formed Czech Republic held its first democratic elections in 44 years, Jagr was drafted fifth overall by the Pittsburgh Penguins. Pittsburgh was a natural fit for Jagr, then 18. Like Kladno, Pittsburgh was a working-class city where many people had depended on the local steel mills before they closed.

Pittsburgh was the first of many stops in a career that would see Jagr capture two Stanley Cups, one Olympic gold medal, a Hart Trophy as league MVP, and five Art Ross Trophies as the NHL’s top scorer. That résumé made Jagr an imposing figure among his new teammates after he was waived by Calgary.

“Some players were afraid when Jagr come here,” said Vit Herral, the team’s public relations manager. “They were scared because he is so much legend and owner of this club. After one or two weeks, they recognize that he is player like them and he is funny guy and he is trying so hard to help them.”

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Jagr’s fingerprints are all over the club since he took over ownership from his father in 2011. He even converted its arena’s playing surface four years ago from the larger international specifications to the smaller NHL size.

“There is not many rinks NHL size,” said Jagr, who also played for Kladno during the NHL lockouts in 1994-95, 2004-05 and 2012-13. “I think we are the only one in Czech Republic. So we can kind of play NHL style. I did it for myself, too. So I can play a little longer. It’s my team, so I’ve got to do it. This is better. Better for the fans. More scoring chances and everything is quicker, more hitting. So it’s more action.”

He most likely will be training on that NHL-sized ice this summer in anticipation of the next step in his career. But first he is adding yet another chapter to the hockey lore of a modest town that has groomed a number of NHL talents, including Jakub Voracek, Tomas Plekanec, Radko Gudas, and the brothers Tomas and Frantisek Kaberle.

“Our little club in this little town is famous because of hockey,” Herral said. “We have a lot of great players in NHL and Czech team. It’s not coincidence that Jagr was born here. It is destiny.”