Hall of Fame defenceman Chris Pronger, seen celebrating the Anaheim Ducks' Stanley Cup win in 2007, has written a book that reflects on his life in hockey.Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press
For most of his 18-year National Hockey League career, Chris Pronger spent the month of April strengthening sinew and sharpening elbows for the rigours of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
But this spring, 15 years after he last skated in a professional game, the Hall of Fame defenceman is employed in more cerebral pursuits. In addition to his broadcasting work with Amazon Prime and Hockey Night in Canada, Pronger has released a book, entitled Earned: The True Cost of Greatness from One of Hockey’s Fiercest Competitors.
After three appearances in the Stanley Cup final, including a 2007 victory playing for the Anaheim Ducks, the two-time Olympic gold medalist uses the book to detail some of the lessons learned along the way, which began long before he was drafted second overall by the Hartford Whalers in 1993.
From your vantage point as a hockey analyst, how do you assess the playoff field this year?
I’m looking at it in a little different light than years past. In the West, in the last few years, it’s been a battle and a slog, and the East has been wide open. Now, if you look at the East, they got a lot of rising up-and-coming beasts that are beating the [tar] out of each other like the West was. I think the winner is going to come out of the West, because the East looks to me like they’re going to kick the [crap] out of each other.
Pronger's book was released this week.HO/The Canadian Press
After falling one win short in 2006, you know what it’s like to lose a Stanley Cup final playing for the Oilers. Connor McDavid and his team have now lost two straight. Is this the year he gets it done?
That is his legacy. You’ve seen all these other guys throughout the history of the league. Those guys that are at the top have one thing that he doesn’t have. He’s got everything but that. And so that eats at him, and it drives him at the same time, where every single day, especially post-Olympics, now you can see it’s like, “Alright, we need to do this again.”
What about Montreal? When you look at players like Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield, peripheral figures when the Canadiens made the final five years ago, they’re now driving that team.
Having that experience, and getting in the playoffs last year, and just the know-how of what it’s going to take. We’ve heard [Wayne] Gretzky talk about it in 1983 when [the Oilers] lost to the Islanders, they realized what it was going to take, like how beaten and battered the Islanders were. Yes, it was their fourth Cup in a row, but what it was going to take for them to actually get over that hump, and they did it the next year.
Not to say that Montreal is going to do that, but I think they’ve got a very good understanding. Their young guys coming into the fold, they’re now the guys.
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The Canadian Stanley Cup drought is now at 33 years. You were part of an Oilers team that could have ended it in 2006, and were part of a Ducks team that denied Ottawa a chance to end it a year later. Does the pressure of playing in a Canadian market make it that much harder to do?
I don’t know if it’s so much pressure that the fan base is putting on it. I think it’s expectations. And it’s better to have those expectations than the other one, right?
[The Oilers have] been there. They were in the decade of darkness. They’re going to blame me again, but they’ve seen that, and now they’re here. It’s better to have these expectations of success, championships, what have you. Is it pressure, yes, but I think [McDavid] puts way more pressure on himself than they would be putting on him.
But the drought in general – do you see it ending any time soon?
There have been kicks at the can. It’s not like there haven’t been teams in the finals. And also, people have got to realize there’s 25 American teams, so there’s more kicks at it, yeah? You know. So seven [teams versus] 25, you go with the odds.
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Much has changed in hockey since you last played 15 years ago, but what comes to mind when you think of the playoffs?
One of the things that I love about the playoffs is what players are willing to do and what they’re willing to play through. And it’s not for themselves, it’s for their teammates, and it’s for the logo, and it’s for the opportunity to win the Stanley Cup. That’s what it means to players, and as much as it means to fans and cities, it means even more to the players.
When we’re kids, that’s what we dream of. Yes, we want to play in the NHL, but we want this. And I get chills when I go like this [lifts his arms over his head] because I know what was there.
Pronger won the Hart and Norris trophies while with the St. Louis Blues in 2000. He wonders if there's a similar level of sacrifice being made in the game today compared to when he was a player.FRANK GUNN/The Canadian Press
You talk about paying the price. Has that culture within the sport changed since you stopped playing?
It was when Don Fehr was taking over the NHLPA [in 2010], and I would say, from that point to his exit, the game was dumbed down, it was benign, it was very docile. And since he’s left, we kind of took this baseball mentality [an unwillingness to play hurt] which is not part of the hockey vibe and not part of who we are as players, where it’s about the team, it’s about winning, it’s about sacrificing.
You might have to sacrifice longevity to have a chance to win a Cup. What are you willing to trade? Instead of playing 20 years, you play 18. I’m willing to take that personally, and I guarantee you there are a lot of players that would do the same thing to win a Cup, because there is a toll. I think you’re seeing it with Florida right now.
Obviously, in the Toronto market, a lot was made about the injury to Auston Matthews that ended his season, and the lack of reaction from his team. How would your teams have dealt with it?
It would be addressed a couple different ways. I think four guys needed to converge. It’s not incumbent upon one guy, especially with the guys they had out there. They don’t have to fight somebody. They just need to make it known that they know. And they’re in and it’s team tough. It’s not who can fight and every time there’s a hit, [that player has] to fight. It’s, “We’re aware of it and guess what? I’m going to go hit your best player.”
How do other teams handle it?
Buffalo had a similar instance last year. This year, they figured it out. Tampa, they’re team tough. They’re not the toughest team on the block, but they stick together. Tougher together. They’ve been like this for probably a lot of [head coach] Jon Cooper’s tenure. They’re highly competitive on pucks. Like, team tough in the corners, on the walls, in front of the net, that’s where they’re tough. It’s not fisticuffs and all this stuff.
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Your name has been linked with the vacant Maple Leafs GM job in the past week or so [Pronger says he hasn’t had a conversation with anyone at MLSE]. Is being a hockey executive something that interests you?
Maybe. It just depends on what it looks like. I think what I’ve said around the scuttlebutt about anything, whether it’s this job or any other team – I’m open to having a conversation with anybody, but it’s a conversation. It’s what does the opportunity look like? I never say never.
I’m not pining for a job. I got a job. I’m doing broadcasting. I’m doing speaking. I got a book. So I think people see me doing all this media stuff and they think I’m pining for the job. I’m actually promoting a book.
Sidney Crosby is back in the playoffs this year. You are one of a small list of players to play with both him and Wayne Gretzky when you played in the 1998 and 2010 Olympics. Can you draw similarities between the two?
Very similar in how they kind of manage themselves, very quiet, very unassuming as players, and understand what the expectation is. Understand there’s kids in the stands that are coming to watch you, that it might be the first time. This might be the one game that they get to all year, because you’re playing. But I would say Wayne was a little more creative. Sid’s built a little different but cerebral moving around the rink. Sid’s [gift] is his motor, and Gretz’s is his mind.
What have you learned about being a broadcaster?
Love me or hate me, I think what people lose sight of, it’s my opinion. It’s not your opinion. You don’t have to listen to it or you don’t have to like it, but I hope it makes you think.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.