It’s too early to panic, but a recent interview with Chris Pronger on the (oddly enough named) Mike Richards Morning Show on TSN1050 revealed that he is still recovering from his off-season surgery and may not be ready by training camp for the second year in a row.
“I would say I’m quite a bit behind where I would be training-wise and working out-wise,” said Pronger. “Whether I’m at camp or not, I don’t know that yet, it’s still early to tell. I would guess I would not be starting camp just from the mere fact that I haven’t been able to work out at all yet. I’m skinny to begin with, and now I’m looking really skinny.”
Pronger coped with ankle, hand and back injuries last season that limited him to 50 regular season games and 3 playoff games. The Flyers struggled in his absence on the powerplay as well as the last two month stretch of the season.
“We got off to a good start after a long grind of the playoffs from the previous year. Whether we hit a wall or whatever halfway through the year after Christmas, we just didn’t seem to get any better. We didn’t continue to push ourselves for whatever reason. It was almost like our development got stunted and we almost got worse.”
Where the Flyers can take some solace is in the record that the 2002-03 St. Louis Blues had when Pronger, their captain at the time, only played five games all season. The team finished with a 41-21-11-6 regular season record before bowing out in the first round of the playoffs to the Vancouver Canucks. They managed their blue line with the likes of Keith Tkachuk (age 30), Al MacInnis (39), Barret Jackman (21), Alexander Khavanov (30), Jeff Finley (35), Bryce Salvador (26) and, of all people, current Flyer Matt Walker.
The 2002-03 Blues ranked
– 4th in goals for
– 16th in goals against
– 20.5% powerplay success rate
By comparison, the 2010-11 Flyers finished
– 3rd in goals for
– 11th in goals against
– 16.6% powerplay success rate
The Flyers of 2011-12 have a much younger defensive core than the 2002-03 Blues and got even younger with the substitution of Andreas Lilja (36) for Sean O’Donnell (40). Lilja is arguably a worse player than O’Donnell, but comes at a much cheaper salary cap hit. Even without Pronger, the Flyers have four top defensemen ready to start the season.
It’s also too early to tell how the changes to the roster will affect the powerplay, but adding Jaromir Jagr and Wayne Simmonds should, at least on paper, improve the special teams. The Flyers would have to spiral wildly out of control to be worse on the powerplay than last season.
Should Pronger not be prepared to start the season come October, the Flyers would be wise to keep prospect Erik Gustafsson with the big club as the 8th defenseman. Gustafsson has a relatively low cap hit and can play up to 57 games before he becomes eligible for waivers. It would also serve as a litmus test for the young Swede to see if he could fill in a roster spot the following season, when both Matt Carle and Braydon Coburn will be free agents (and due healthy raises).
Depending on how Pronger’s health holds up over the remaining six years of his contract, it would be wise for the Flyers to begin preparing for life without him.
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Pronger best days are well behind him, to expect him to play 70-80 games and
20-25 minutes a game at this stage of his career is not being realistic..
Flyers should not count of plan on this and if they do, than that’s a mistatke.. Pronger should play about 40-50 games and play only about 15 minutes a night to keep him as fresh for the playoff ride as possible, the reality is, that this is probably his final season but would you rather have him for the Playoffs or for bunch of meaningless regular season games and then be hurt again for th Playoffs ..
Not sure what bringing up the 2002-2003 St Louis Blues Power Play team has to do with anything for the 2011 Flyers.. The Flyers need a lot more than Pronger on the point to have an effective Power Play.. Consistent Traffic in front of the Net has been missing has been missing the last couple of years..
I’ll be the first to admit the comparisons are a bit of a a stretch, but I suppose my point was that Pronger, as captain, has missed significant time before and his team did fine without him. Pronger’s absence was used as an excuse for their performance last season and it would be frustrating if that was the case again. I think it’s premature to say “his best days are behind him,” but yes, the team would be wise to prepare for the worst.
Without his toughness & grit in front of the net, & in the defensive corners, they will be eaten live again by more physical teams. The rest of the DF are skaters & puck movers, with no physicality what so ever. Coburn is the biggest wuss, waste of $$$ & space, that i’ve seen on this team, since Chris Therian.
First off Keith Tkachuk played forwad and second you do not decide to play Pronger 40 – 50 games and only 15 minutes a game. 20-22 minutes a game and every game he is not injuried. And Coburn may not be a drop the gloves guy but he is at his best playing against other teams top lines. Coburn is not a waste. The only waste here is me reading flyer news on this site. I just can’t resist correcting and arguing with the casual fan. I will admit i am not the best football mind or hockey mind but man Paulman you have no business commenting on hockey.
I played hockey for 10-15 years Lewdoggie,
I admit I don’t start Following the NHL Season to after Football Season is over for the first 50 games (3 months) are basically meaningless… I get into it about the last 2 months when the games are meaningful and the level of play intensifies… Games in November/December & January mean absolutely zippo come playoff time.. which is why in another post I stated that I would not even play Pronger to about January.. They need him for the Playoffs and not Christmas Season…