CSNPhilly reported today that Flyers defenseman Chris Pronger will see a foot specialist on Friday to determine the severity of an injury believed to be a fractured toe. The injury comes at about as optimum of a time as a fan could hope, as the Flyers only play two games in the next eleven days. The loss of a veteran like Pronger would be a nightmare for most teams (ala Mark Streit and the New York Islanders), but the depth of the Flyers on the back end cushions the blow that any time lost would carry.
In particular, the success of 25-year old defenseman Andrej Meszaros has really stood out all season. His third pairing with veteran Sean O’Donnell could easily be the top line for any other franchise, as the two lead the league in +/-, at +21 and +18, respectively.
Meszaros, a former first round draft pack, is currently on pace to tally 28 assists, matching his output during his breakout years with the Ottawa Senators. He’s only lit the lamp once this season, but he has just three less points than Pronger.
The Flyers acquired Meszaros this summer literally minutes before the opening of free agency, trading a 2nd round draft pick to the Tampa Bay Lightning for the young Slovakian. It was a bit of a confusing move for many, as Meszaros had been underachieving in Tampa in the first year of a $16 million contract. His steep $4 million cap hit combined with the fact that the Flyers haven’t had a 2nd round draft pick since 2006 (where they drafted Andreas Nodl) was hard to swallow for fans tired of the team having salary cap problems and a poor farm team.
While the organization has not been, and probably never will be, conscious of how to manage the team in terms of a salary cap, you have to credit them for their ability to gauge talent. As valuable as draft picks are, defensemen take time to develop and Meszaros is at an age where he can contribute more than Oskars Bartulis or prospects Marc Andre Bourdon and Erik Gustafsson can. The Flyers came within two games of a Stanley Cup last season, and they will not make the same mistake of skating only two elite defensive pairings twice.
The most telling line from Tim Panaccio’s report on CSNPhilly about how Pronger’s injury could impact the Flyers is his closing statement: “Incredibly, many of Pronger’s teammates weren’t even aware that he did not play in the third period and some weren’t even aware he was injured.” If that doesn’t speak to the depth and confidence of this team, I don’t know what else does.
