Athlete Bios
Hockey
Pronger a veteran on youthful Team Canada
Last Updated: Monday, February 8, 2010 | 1:30 PM ET
New York Times for CBC Sports
Chris Pronger of the Philadelphia Flyers celebrates his second period power play goal against the Carolina Hurricanes on January 23, 2010. (Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)Chris Pronger, a 6-foot-6, 225-pound defenceman, won a gold medal with the Canadian hockey team at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
But Pronger played with a hairline fracture of his foot at the 2006 Turin Games and struggled to keep pace with the Swiss and the Russians as Canada finished a dismal seventh.
Since then, Canada has turned to youth, except for old-timers like Pronger, 35, and 38-year-old goaltender Martin Brodeur. With a nose for offence and a menacing presence on the ice, Pronger will play in his fourth and undoubtedly final Winter Olympics.
And since this one will be on home ice, he readily accepted an opportunity to compete for a spot on the Canadian team for the Vancouver Games.
“You always want to compete,” Pronger told reporters at an Olympic training camp in August. “You want to win — and when you’ve won in the past, and seeing what it takes, the excitement and enthusiasm you get from winning — you want to get that back. You always want to feel that rush. There’ll be no better opportunity for that than in Vancouver.”
He said he was prepared to play a new style under Olympic coach Mike Babcock as Canada seeks to return to what it considers its rightful place in the hockey galaxy as the gold medal winner.
“More puck possession, more speed, up-tempo all the time with four lines rolling and continually applying pressure,” Pronger said at the time. “The predominant theme for the defence is being able to skate and move the puck.”
His professional career has moved in an arc from immature youth to superstar to journeyman. Selected with the second overall pick in the 1993 draft by the Hartford Whalers, Pronger made as much news off the ice as on. He was arrested for driving under the influence and for participating in a bar room brawl. He was also said to be indifferent to physical conditioning as a young player.
But Pronger rededicated himself and won the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s most valuable player during the 1999-2000 season while playing for St. Louis. He was the first defenceman to win the award since Bobby Orr in 1971-72.
Pronger later moved to Edmonton and Anaheim, where in 2008 he received an eight-game suspension for stamping on the leg of Vancouver’s Ryan Kesler. Last June, Pronger was traded to the Philadelphia Flyers, where his intimidating style was welcomed in a city accustomed to the rough and tumble Broad Street Bullies.
The Flyers are seeking their first NHL title since winning consecutive championships in 1974 and 1975 but first, Pronger will attempt to help bring Canada another Olympic gold medal.
