my point is that GMs didn't know with any degree of certainty what the jagr situation was going to be. if i've perpetuated any misconceptions, it's because i'm talking precisely about misconceptions and not what actually happened-- because as we all know, jagr was able to leave, and right away. so i'm just repeating what GMs and hockey analysts were saying at the time. craig patrick said at the draft that taking jagr was a gamble, but that his talent made it a gamble worth taking. i remember reading in beckett the first year that magazine existed one of the other GMs-- i think it was clarke-- who said that they would definitely have taken jagr if not for the political instability and unclear picture in czechoslovakia.
we are talking about why jagr wasn't taken 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th, not what the actual circumstances of his ability to leave were. this discussion arose because someone had mentioned that GMs didn't take jagr sooner because they didn't know if they could get him to come over quickly. then someone from slovakia said, "communism ended in 1989. so you're wrong." that fact, in and of itself, doesn't prove anything.
if you were there in 1990, maybe you can help out here. i really don't know the timeline on how things in the country changed after '89, but if the jagr case can be any indication, it happened really fast. reasonable to assume, though, that NHL GMs also didn't have a clear picture of what was going to happen with respect to hockey players and leaving as late as june 1990. there wasn't much time between the velvet revolution and the '90 draft to establish new politics, but again these are just assumptions.
Jagr could not have picked a better time in history to become eligible for the NHL draft. The fall of communism in Czechoslovakia was in progress in 1990. Though at draft time there was still much political uncertainty, Jagr and other young Czechs would be allowed to leave the country to purse careers in the NHL. Previous generations of hockey stars in Czechoslovakia could only hope for special permission after years of service to the national team, or risk defecting to the west, leaving their families and home behind forever.
Because the political uncertainty scared many NHL teams, Jagr, the hands-down best player in a strong draft, dropped to the 5th overall selection where the Pittsburgh Penguins were more than willing to be patient with the talented superstar. And their gamble proved to be not much of a gamble at all, as political concerns were all for not. Jagr and other young hockey players were given the blessing to pursue careers in the NHL.
http://penguinslegends.blogspot.com/2008/07/jaromir-jagr.html
NHL scouts were intrigued, but many teams were hesitant to use a high draft pick to select Jagr. Unlike other highly rated standouts from his homeland such as Petr Nedved, Jagr was still in Czechoslovakia. He still had a year remaining on his contract with Kladno, after which he would have to perform two to three years of military service before he would be available to sign with a North American team, assuming that Kladno did not then hold him for a king's ransom.
In the 1990 NHL Entry Draft, the Pittsburgh Penguins, who already had an established franchise player in Mario Lemieux, could afford to take a gamble, and they chose Jagr fifth overall. It was an astute move, as the Penguins got their man much sooner than expected. The Eastern Bloc dissolved that summer and Jagr, suddenly free to move once Kladno released him, arrived in the United States as an 18-year-old rookie.
http://www.legendsofhockey.net/LegendsOfHockey/jsp/SearchPlayer.jsp?player=10703
i think, in a weaker year, you would still probably take jagr first and gamble that he would defect or that he would eventually be able to come over. but those other four guys had tremendous upside too. still, jagr was the cream of the crop, according to most.
"It's funny, but the Canucks asked me who was the best player in the draft when they interviewed me in 1990," Nedved says. "I told (General Manager) Pat Quinn, 'Jagr, by far,' yet they took me. Just think if Vancouver had Jagr, Pavel Bure and Alexander Mogilny now."
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1208/is_n16_v220/ai_18191253/pg_3/?tag=content;col1 (the sporting news)
so it seems that the *perceived* uncertainty is what kept him from going higher, which is what we were talking about.
as for the other thing (which this is probably not the best time or place to get into), it's a difficult question, this terminology. i certainly am not going to tell a slovakian that his country was or was not soviet. but yes, there is a reason jagr wore 68, and it wasn't for what some university students did in paris.