The Flyers announced today that Chris Pronger will miss approximately four weeks following surgery on his left knee. Paul Holmgren said on Friday that, “We’re not sure what it is” with regards to the “virus” that was plaguing him for over a week, but obviously he wasn’t telling the whole truth.
This is a huge blow to the Flyers’ already depleted blue line. As mentioned on Saturday, Kevin Marshall and Marc Andre-Bourdon will not cut it as the 5th and 6th defensemen for a month unless the organization feels like gambling with their season. The Flyers will need to either recall Oskars Bartulis or Matt Walker (both subject to re-entry waivers) or trade for a defenseman.
The Flyers have also placed Andreas Nodl on waivers, according to TSN’s Bob McKenzie. Nodl on waivers would help make room for Brayden Schenn if they had not already placed both Pronger and Andreas Lilja on LTIR (Schenn has, by the way, been recalled).
This second move reeks of poor planning. I wrote this morning that Claude Giroux is already being taxed by playing too many minutes, and that one way to alleviate the burden would be to spread more penalty killing minutes to Andreas Nodl and Jon Kalinski.
Instead, Nodl’s 2:00± will now have to be redistributed, meaning that either Giroux takes on more minutes or someone with no penalty killing experience will be suddenly killing penalties (Harry Zolnierczyk?).
Additionally, Nodl has one NHL season and three AHL seasons under his belt compared to the half dozen rookies on the roster. Sending Nodl, who has two years left on his new $845K contract, will now be subject to re-entry waivers (if he even clears in the first place), effectively eliminating him from the team.
We can all rejoice, though; the Flyers are still employing Jody Shelley.
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I stated that Pronger wouldn’t play in much more that 40-50 Games at most this Season due to Injurues, which is why I also stated that he should not be Captain and why it was a mistake in the 1st Place for the Flyers to build their hopes of making Pronger being the Centerpiece of this Defense… He’s too old and his body is falling apart.. They will need him by March for the Playoff Season..