NHL Should Have Voided Chris Pronger Trade

In all sports, there seems to be moves where a team’s only prerogative is to get rid of salary or a player and the return doesn’t mean anything. We have seen this when a player gets traded for a trade exemption in the NBA. You see this constantly in baseball when a team trades a player for a 30-year-old High A prospect. In the NFL, they have the luxury to just cut players as they please, so it doesn’t happen too often there. In the NHL, we saw David Clarkson get traded for Nathan Horton, a player who could possibly never play again. At least with that deal, the Toronto Maple Leafs have a shot at seeing some return, but we saw a deal this offseason that we know won’t pay dividends.

The details of the trade read as the Arizona Coyotes trading away 25-year-old forward Sam Gagner in return for defenseman Nicklas Grossman and future Hall of Famer Chris Pronger of the Philadelphia Flyers. It seems pretty innocent enough. The Coyotes are a franchise that desperately needs veterans on the blue line, and these two would bring almost three decades of NHL experience to the team. That can be invaluable. There is only one issue with the deal: Pronger is unable to play ever again.

This isn’t a Horton situation. Pronger could be voted in the Hockey Hall of Fame this season. He currently works for the Department of Player Safety. There is no coming back for Pronger. He may never even step foot into the Coyotes’ building. Speaking of which, we don’t even know where the Coyotes’ building is going to be thanks to the fight they are dealing with between themselves and the city of Glendale.

There was no making the Coyotes better in this deal. They made a move strictly to get closer to the salary cap floor without having to spend any real money. Pronger is set to make $575,000 this season, but his cap hit is $4.9 million. In the deal, the Flyers gave the Coyotes $500,000 retained from Grossman’s salary. So basically, for $75,000 of actual money, the Coyotes get close to a $5 million cap hit.

It’s understandable why the Coyotes find themselves in this position. They know, with their situation, no free agent will want to come play for their team. They were far away from the floor and needed a way to get there. This does help that, but the point of having a hockey team is to watch the best talent in the world play. This doesn’t feel right, and Gary Bettman should have taken more time reviewing the deal. Coyotes fans have dealt with enough; they should at least get a better on-ice product.

This deal should have been vetoed from the beginning. This makes the NHL look like a laughing stock. Trading for a retired player, whether he is filed or not, does not help the growth of the game. It makes the league a punchline. This league is better than that. The Coyotes should be better than this.