Top 100 Oilers: No. 17 — Chris Pronger

Notable

The Hartford Whalers selected Pronger second overall behind Alexandre Daigle in the 1993 NHL Draft, but after two seasons in the northeast, Pronger looked like the bust and Daigle the viable future star. 

Mix in a trade for St. Louis Blues fan favourite Brendan Shanahan, and the pressure kept mounting on Pronger, who admitted he wasn’t taking the game seriously enough as a cocky kid. 

The Gretzky trade to St. Louis in 1996 helped take some of the spotlight off him, and from there, he started to become the player many believed he could be: a physical, minute-munching, athletic freak who could chime in offensively too. 

That translated into his one and only Norris Trophy, and wrestling away the Hart Trophy in 2000 from Jaromir Jagr. 

The Blues were looking to shed salary as the NHL entered into the season-long lockout, and that’s how the Oilers were able to acquire him. 

Pronger, drunkenly, he says, agreed to a five-year contract without consulting his wife, a bargain in comparison to the massive salaries around the league just a couple years before. 

Once traded to Anaheim, he’d lift the Stanley Cup the very next season, and would help another low-seed in the Philadelphia Flyers go on an unexpected run to the Final in 2010, three trips with three different teams in five years. 

His career would end unceremoniously due to concussions.

The Story

At this point, what else is there to say? 

I reviewed his book Earned in April (written with some AI assistance), and it’s shockingly light with interesting hockey stories, which any time in front of a microphone he’s all too eager to share, making sure to laugh the loudest at his own jokes. 

He says he agreed to the Edmonton contract drunk without telling his wife, and that’s why there was an aversion to the city. Even then, GM Kevin Lowe responded harshly to this version of events. Years before on Spittin’ Chiclets, he had said the Oilers “sold him a bill of goods” that wasn’t fulfilled. There’s all the rumour and innuendo about his private life away from the rink. 

Ultimately, the Pronger Situation remains the symbol of an incredible, dream-like rise from the ashes, through cash constraints, franchise instability, and perennial playoff losses to Dallas that marred the post-Glory Day Oilers. As quickly as he and Mike Peca arrived for the press conference, they seemed to be gone. 

He was the biggest no-doubt difference maker of this magnitude since Mark Messier, allowing the rest of the blue line to play fewer minutes and be more effective. 

In the spring of 2006, an inconsistent but obviously talented team caught lightning in the bottle, dialled into coach Craig MacTavish’s program, and beat the Detroit Red Wings, who finished with the fifth most points in NHL history that season. 

They clawed out of a 2-0 hole against the San Jose Sharks and won in six. Edmonton ran through the Anaheim Ducks in the Western Conference Final. 

But surrendering a three-goal lead in Game 1, originally helped by Chris Pronger’s penalty shot goal (the first in NHL history), then Marc-Andre Bergeron’s collision with Andrew Ladd bursting into Dwayne Roloson, and Ty Conklin’s gaffe in the dying moments of regulation, changed the mood right away in the Stanley Cup Final. Yet, they didn’t quit, sending the series the length. 

If the Oilers had been successful in Game 7, Pronger likely would’ve become just the seventh defenceman ever at that time to win the Conn Smythe Trophy. He scored five goals and 21 points in 24 playoff games, leading the team in playoff scoring, while averaging 30:57 minutes a game in that two-month stretch. 

Instead, the Oilers lost, his house in Edmonton already packed up. The betrayal dropped like an anvil, crudely waking up fans from their dream. 

Today, Pronger periodically re-envisions this history as a podcast guest. My guess is he’s holding out for a cushy front-office job somewhere. 

Now to the players we’d like to remember fondly. ‘Nuff said.

What Brownlee said

“Even before the Edmonton Oilers went on a magical playoff run that took them all the way to Game 7 of the 2006 Stanley Cup finals, it was obvious the Oilers had found the franchise cornerstone they needed in Norris Trophy winner Chris Pronger and that the five-year contract they’d signed him to during the summer of 2005 was a bargain. Pronger was a stud, a skilled, mean, minute-eating freak and the straw that stirred the drink.

“What wasn’t obvious is that date with the Carolina Hurricanes, as the eighth seed out of the Western Conference, wasn’t the beginning of a return to contention by the Oilers most fans anticipated. It was a blip on the screen, a one-off. While Pronger embraced the city, his wife Lauren, a wealthy St. Louis socialite, never did. She didn’t want to be here. In the end, that simple truth spelled the end of Pronger’s tenure as an Oiler after 80 regular season games and 24 more in the playoffs. It marked the beginning of a decade of defeat and some of the darkest days in the history of this storied franchise.

“I can’t think of anybody in the history of the franchise, save for perhaps owner Peter Pocklington after he sold Wayne Gretzky to the Los Angeles Kings, who went from hero to villain as quickly as Pronger did when his trade demand went public within days of Game 7.”

The Last 10

• No. 27 — Jason Smith
• No. 26 — Zach Hyman
• No. 25 — Andy Moog
• No. 24 — Steve Smith
• No. 23 — Lee Fogolin
• No. 22 — Randy Gregg
• No. 21 — Craig MacTavish
• No. 20 — Craig Simpson
• No. 19 — Shawn Horcoff
• No. 18 — Evan Bouchard