Nasty hard to play against you know you put the fear in God and a lot of guys
this guy's unreal real competitive sometimes too competitive it was a line
and then the Chris Pronger line and that Chris Pronger line was way up high
and he wouldn't feel bad the unfortunate part when you had him as a
partner everybody dumped it in your corner nobody wanted to dump it in his
corner and go get it that's how I always played played with an edge played
hard I'm sorry but that's the only way to play the game Chris Pronger imposing
feared and dominant standing 6-6 he played against the toughest opponents in
all situations yet could control the pace of a game with his long reach and soft
hands born in Dryden Ontario Pronger patrolled the blue line for the Peter
borough Pete's of the OHL before being selected second overall at the 1993 NHL
draft by the Hartford Wailers he made the Wailers as a teenager but was
traded to the St. Louis Blues after his sophomore season I was a little
surprised initially just from the fact that I was just fishing with Paul
homegrown who was our head coach he checked in with the front office and
they said they were trading me he had a lot of pressure on him he got traded
for a big-time player here and a fan favorite in Brendan Shanahan he felt he
had a lot to prove a great trade for me in my career to go to an organization
like St. Louis and have the players of the caliber of Brett Hall and Grant
Führer and Al McKinnis he had you know the foundation is he just he needed to
build off that and that's what he did he got himself bigger stronger faster and
turned himself into one of the best defensemen who never played the game
Pronger's point totals ascended each of his first five seasons in St. Louis in
1999-2000 he was an NHL best plus 52 while playing more than 30 minutes per
game you had a really good chance of winning those 30 or 32 minutes every
night now you just had to figure out how to win the other 28 that same season
he attained career highs and points and assists and was awarded both the Hart and
Norris trophies becoming the first defensemen since Bobby or to win the
heart he won the MVP of the NHL not too many D have done that no Bobby or that's
probably the only comparison between me and Bobby or that's tall cotton right
there in August 2005 he was traded to the Edmonton Oilers and led them on an
unforgettable run to the Stanley Cup final best quality was the way he thought
the game and really taught me as a coach a lot about how the position should be
played I don't know if there was a more dominant player in the game at that
time I mean he literally every chef took over the game the Oilers lost to the
Carolina Hurricanes in game seven of the final that summer Pronger was traded to
the Anaheim Ducks when I first got down I knew they had a good team because we
had just played them in the conference finals when I was with Edmonton so it
was Stanley Cup or bust anything less than a Stanley Cup that year was going
to be a complete failure Pronger and the Ducks would not be denied winning the
franchise's first Stanley Cup in 2006 2007 after three seasons in Anaheim he
was traded to the Philadelphia Flyers where Pronger would once again appear in
the Stanley Cup final in 2011 a rash of injuries would end his career but winning
hockey followed Chris Pronger arguably the best shutdown defenseman of his era
he kept in three different NHL teams and provided a steadying force at every
stop common denominator in all of the places that Chris went was the team
became excellent when he was there he didn't care about anything except for
winning and that's who you want on your team
