Chris Pronger has lived the trade market from just about every angle, and he didn’t need this summer’s flurry of movement to remind him how much the NHL has changed.
The Hall of Fame defenceman was dealt five times in his career, moving from Hartford to St. Louis to Edmonton to Anaheim to Philadelphia and then Arizona.
That kind of shuffle was once a lot easier for teams to control. Now, with more players holding real leverage, Pronger sees the balance tilting the other way - and he’s all for it.
On Wednesday’s edition of the Daily Faceoff podcast, Morning Cuppa Hockey, Pronger said the old setup gave clubs too much power.
Colby Cohen asked him where he stands on the current era of player empowerment, especially after spending his own career in a very different NHL and recently interviewing for a team president job.
Pronger answered bluntly: “The pendulum was so far skewed and the teams had all the power. I was traded five times.
I asked for a trade once. I got vilified because I asked for a trade.
But nobody complained the other four times when I got traded.”
He said players now have a clearer understanding of how short their careers can be, and that many are thinking more carefully about what comes next once they stop playing.
Pronger also pushed back on the idea that player control has hurt the game itself. In his view, the on-ice product is still the main event, and the drama of playoff hockey remains as intense as ever.
“The electricity and the anger and the vitriol of playoff hockey is back, where these players realize how meaningful and what it means to your career to win a Stanley Cup, to win a championship and all the rest of that. So you can see on the players’ faces a heartbreak when they do lose. and the excitement and just what it really means to win a championship with that group of guys in locker room for those that have been there a long time and fought through with guys to finally get it done.”
Pronger said players should have the ability to control their careers when they can, while also making clear that asking for a trade doesn’t guarantee one.
“I think the players should, and rightly, when they have the option (control their careers). We can go down this whole rabbit hole of no-move clauses and all the rest of that, it’s certainly within the players, right?
They’re providing the service. But just because you ask for a trade doesn’t mean they have to trade you.”
The conversation also touched on Pronger’s own trade request from his brief stint with the Oilers, which he said earlier this year happened while he was drunk. That revelation came in a new book he wrote, described by Michael Menzies as “ uncharacteristically dry,” and it sparked a back-and-forth with former Oilers executive Kevin Lowe. Lowe said he wished he had never gone through with the trade, while Pronger responded by saying Lowe’s claim was false.
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