Pronger, Flyers agree to extension

July 7, 2009   ·   Derek Felix   ·   Jump to comments

It didn’t take long for Chris Pronger to decide his future. Rather than continue being a rental, the newest Flyer defenseman agreed to an extension that should keep him in Philadelphia for the remainder of his career.

The 34 year-old All-Star reached agreement on a seven-year $35 million deal. When the Flyers dealt away Joffrey Lupul, Lucas Sbisa, Ryan Dingle, two first round picks plus a conditional third (2010 or 2011) to the Ducks at this year’s Draft in Montreal, it was seen as a huge risk due to the big man having one year left on his contract. Now, it looks like he’ll wear Flyer black, orange and white until age 42 helping the franchise chase their third Stanley Cup. They haven’t won it since winning back-to-back in 1974 and 1975 with the great Bobby Clarke captaining them and Bernie Parent in net.

“I am very excited to be able to retire a Philadelphia Flyer and I am looking forward to many years with the Flyers logo on my chest,” Pronger said earlier today at an introductory press conference while donning his newest jersey.

“We are pleased to have one of the NHL’s premier defencemen in our organization and under contract long term,” Flyers GM Paul Holmgren added of the former 1999-00 Hart/Norris winner. “When we made the trade for Chris, it was our intention to get him signed to an extension and we are glad we could come to this agreement.”

It will be Pronger’s fifth NHL team. He started his career with the Whalers before being traded to the Blues straight up for Brendan Shanahan. Following a successful stint there, he was moved to Edmonton for Eric Brewer, Jeff Woywitka and Doug Lynch. Though his stay in Western Alberta was brief, he helped lead the eighth seeded Oilers back to the Cup Finals where they fell in seven games to the Hurricanes. Due in large part to his wife, he forced a trade to Anaheim where again the familiar Lupul was part of a package that included Ladislav Smid, a 2007 first round pick plus a conditional first round and second round pick in 2008.

As fate would have it, Pronger would team with ex-Devil Scott Niedermayer forming a dynamic duo that led the Ducks to Lord Stanley in 2006-07. After three seasons out on the West coast, Pronger heads East for the first time in his NHL career. In 1,022 games, he’s tallied 142 goals and 464 assists for 606 points along with a plus-153 rating while racking up 1,457 penalty minutes.

The East just got a whole lot tougher.