Flyers Acquire Chris Pronger

The Flyers made a big trade at Friday’s Entry Draft, acquiring 6′6, 221-pound defenseman Chris Pronger from Anaheim for right wing Joffrey Lupul, defenseman Luca Sbisa, and two first round draft picks in thie year’s and next year’s drafts. Minor-league forward Ryan Dingle also came to the Flyers in the deal.  With this move, the Flyers get the huge, banging defenseman that they needed to clear the front of the net, a problem that was glaring in the first-round loss to Pittsburgh.  The Flyers were rumored to be interested in acquiring Pronger at the March trade deadline but couldn’t do it because of salary cap issues. 

This is obviously a move made with an eye toward winning the Cup now and sacrifices some of the Flyers’ future.  Pronger is a former Hart and Norris Trophy winner and has won the Stanley Cup. He has great leadership capability, can move the puck, and is a huge physical presence.  He played every game last season and averaged 25 minutes of ice time. It will be great to have a defenseman of his size and skill on our backline.  However, I am not happy with what we gave up. Besides the two first rounders, Luca Sbisa played well as a rookie last season before being sent back to Juniors late in the season.  He is going to be an excellent defenseman and including him in this deal may turn out to be a big mistake.  Lupul was a decent player, but his contract paid him more than what his average production was worth. The two late first round picks don’t bother me – they’re a crap shoot in many ways.  To me, Sbisa is they key in tilting this deal in Anaheim’s favor.  It’ll only be worth it if the Flyers win the Cup in the next year or two.  GM Paul Holmgren has shown a tendency in his last couple of deals to give up too much. The Ducks knew the Flyers really wanted Pronger; maybe Homer needs to be more coy in his discussions. 

Also consider that Pronger is no youngster at 35 years of age and has only one year remaining on his contract. The Flyers will need to re-sign him after this coming season, so this could turn out to be only a one-year thing. And once again, the Flyers acquire a player they covet but only after he’s near the end of his career. Remember Peter Forsberg? Dale Hawerchuk? Adam Oates? Paul Coffey?  It will be nice to have Pronger, but time will tell if this deal was worth it.

Finally, this trade will likely put an end to Jay Bouwmeester talk.  JayBo’s agent said on Friday that he would test free agency on July 1 even if a team acquired his rights before then.  That made it useless to trade for him.