Chris Pronger
Chris Pronger
Christopher Robert Prongeris a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman who is currently under contract with the Arizona Coyotes of the National Hockey League. He has not played since November 2011 due to post-concussion syndrome related to three separate hits suffered during his career; he also suffers from vision impairment due to being hit in the eyeby the blade of another player's stick. Though not officially retired, he is not expected to play again. In October 2014, Pronger signed a contract...
ProfessionHockey Player
Date of Birth10 October 1974
CityDryden, Canada
We had a few different plans, actually. It just depended on where the puck was going to be. 'Pies' made a great play just to be able to bump it back, and I just took out my driver and swung at it, and fortunately the puck went between his legs.
Al did such a great job as captain last year. I need to focus and concentrate on helping this team win hockey games. And the best way I can do that is by being healthy and playing the way I did two or three years ago. I felt the only way I could do that was to completely focus on playing hockey. Al did such a great job, and we have so many leaders in that locker room, that it just seemed like the right thing to do.
He's been great at camp. He definitely has a great set of hands and he can sniff out the net, that's for sure. Hopefully he's going to be a player who can step in and show some scoring and pick up a role on this team.
He was always very unassuming, a regular guy, but his approach to training and preparation was amazing. He was really a consummate professional, a great leader.
You could kind of see after that first game how important he was. Taking the focus off of us and putting it on him, he awakened the team and let us go about our job. It'll be great having him there from a leadership perspective.
Yeah, it does get old. And I'm sure it gets real old for the goalies. It just creates that much more for them, but that's the nature of the beast. Until you've proven yourself there are going to be those question marks, and hopefully this year is the year that they answer them.
We didn't want to put any energy in. We didn't show up tonight. We didn't work tonight.
I think everybody wants to end their career the way they want it to end. For people in Al's position, a high-level player who had a lot left in the tank, to have your career end that way is ... very difficult.
I think anything is a realistic option at this stage, We can't rule anything out in the future.
I think it was bound to happen. I mean, you're eventually going to lose. What's important is how we respond to the loss. That's going to be critical for us. The makings of winning teams are how they return from a loss.
When you're taking control of a game, you lose a lot of momentum killing penalties. Granted, you can kill them off and you're good.
We'll go in blind and, hopefully, won't show them too much respect.
To let it slip like that is disappointing.
I'm sure he's looking. He's got a lot of cap room. I don't think there's too many teams who have as much as we do, but it's a tough market out there to find anybody right now. There's not a lot of teams who are going to give up anything.