 | Jaromir Jagr was acquired by the Florida Panthers on Thursday in a trade from the New Jersey Devils.
The 43-year-old forward had 11 goals and 18 assists in 57 games for the Devils this season.
The Panthers are two points behind the Boston Bruins for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference | | Sunrise - February 26, 2015 - Jaromir Jagr was acquired by the Florida Panthers on Thursday in a trade from the New Jersey Devils.
The 43-year-old forward had 11 goals and 18 assists in 57 games for the Devils this season.
The Panthers are two points behind the Boston Bruins for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference. Florida, which has made the playoffs once since 2000 (in 2012), hosts the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday; Jagr will not play.
The Devils are eight points behind the Bruins, who they play Friday at home.
New Jersey will receive a second-round and a third-round draft pick.
Jagr played 15:55 in a 3-1 loss to the Calgary Flames on Wednesday, but had played fewer than 13 minutes the prior two games, victories against the Carolina Hurricanes (12:13) on Saturday and Arizona Coyotes (12:49) on Monday.
New Jersey coach Peter DeBoer was fired on Dec. 26 and was replaced by Lou Lamoriello, Adam Oates and Scott Stevens. Since the coaching change, Jagr played less than 17 minutes in 17 of 22 games.
"The coach is changing, that's what it is," Jagr said Wednesday. "It's not the first time it happened to me and I don't mind it, but there's a history.
"It's not the first time I've been through this; maybe not like this, but I still have confidence in my game."
Jagr, in his second season with the Devils, ranks sixth on the NHL list with 716 goals, seventh with 1,068 assists, and fifth with 1,784 points.
He led the Devils with 67 points (24 goals, 43 assists) last season. The Panthers are his eighth NHL team.
Florida on Tuesday traded forward Sean Bergenheim to the Minnesota Wild for a third-round pick in the 2016 NHL Draft.
At the time, Panthers general manager Dale Tallon said moving Bergenheim, who asked to be traded, would open playing time for some of Florida's prospects.
"I appreciate the hard work [Sean has] given us, but it's time for him and us to move on, and it makes some room for us for some of our young guys," Tallon said.
"We've got [Garrett] Wilson in the lineup tonight, and we've got [Quinton] Howden and [Rocco] Grimaldi and lots of young guys coming, so we need to make room for them. That's just the way it is."
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