About a month after the conclusion of the 2006 Stanley Cup Final, Chris Pronger made the decision that he wanted out of Edmonton and requested a trade from the Oilers. He was arguably the best player on the club at the time and without him, the team most likely wouldn’t have made it all the way to the Final (only to lose to the Carolina Hurricanes).
Recently, Pronger was a guest on the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast where he described his time in Edmonton and let us in on a little tidbit about a trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs that fell through. You can watch the clip below.
Just push play and it should start right as he’s talking about what teams were in on him after he told St. Louis to trade him.
The former Hart Trophy winner said that the Maple Leafs offered Tomas Kaberle, Matt Stajan, and a first-round pick in 2007 (turned into Lars Eller) and 2008 (Turned into Colin Wilson) but then GM of the Oilers, Kevin Lowe, wanted Alex Steen instead of Stajan. John Ferguson Jr was the GM of Toronto then and he declined only to send Steen to St. Louis in the Carlo Colaiacovo trade (as a throw-in according to Paul Bissonette) for Lee Stempniak.
Other things that he talked about, he said he was sold a bill of goods from the Oilers and that was one of the reasons that lead to him requesting the deal. Also, he said he shouldn’t have signed the long-term contract with Edmonton and he would’ve been better off accepting his qualifying offer and choosing where he wanted to play.
Pronger hinted that the younger players on the team had pretty exhaustive recreational lives off the ice but didn’t really get into it. Funny how that seems to be a theme throughout the club’s history…
He mentioned that the team had good leadership and veterans on the roster though and that they were thankful that the team traded for him because the coach at the time, Craig MacTavish (a former teammate of Pronger’s in St. Louis), was running them ragged and they needed the defender to get them some days off. I’m assuming that MacT was hard on them because they were running a bit wild away from the rink and he was trying to instill some professional work ethic.
The rest is history, right? Lowe sent Pronger to Anaheim for Joffrey Lupul, Ladi Smid, a first-rounder (Nick Ross) in 2007, in addition to a first (Jordan Eberle) and a second-round pick (Travis Hamonic) in 2008. Then he goes on to win the Stanley Cup with the Ducks.
I’m pretty happy with the direction that the Oilers are going now and their collection of players but imagine Tomas Kaberle, Matt Stajan, Lars Eller, and Colin Wilson (potentially) in the copper and blues as opposed to what they ended up with (which wasn’t that bad, just not quite as good). Where would have that group of players taken the club? Probably nowhere near where they ended up, but who’s really to say? It’s not like Kaberle and Stajan were world beaters and Eller/Wilson turned into solid 3rd liners.
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