When defenseman Chris Pronger was traded to Philadelphia for winger Joffrey Lupul, defensive prospect Luca Sbisa, two 1st round picks, and a conditional third it was under the impression that the Flyers would try to sign him long term. He is after all a top 5 defenseman in the NHL by anyone’s standards and will be dominant for many years to come based on the age that most defensemen can perform up to in their later years. It takes a really gifted blueliner to win a Norris Trophy as he has, but it takes a generational talent at the blueline to win a Hart Trophy, the league MVP, when generally the award goes to the top offensive player. Ovechkin has won it the past two seasons.
If Pronger did become a rental the deal would be heavily in favor of the Anaheim Ducks who got all kinds of stellar future considerations while the Flyers were stuck with a one-year rental.
Fortunately that was not the case as both the Flyers and Pronger wanted to get a deal done. Coach John Stevens and Pronger obviously new each other at the opposite ends of the age spectrum on the Hartford Whalers back in the early 90s which eventually packed up to move to Carolina. Stevens was the veteran AHL call-up and Pronger was the young kid with all the future in the world ahead of him. Who was the coach of that team might you ask? It was our very own Paul Holmgren. With so many ties here Pronger wanted to be here. He wanted to be in a city where the fans appreciated him for everything he brought to the table. How could he be loved in a Californian hockey market? There are many reasons to speculate why Pronger wants to retire as a Philadelphia Flyer, but the fact remains that he will wear an orange and black jersey for the rest of his days in the NHL thanks to a 7-year extension on his contract. The contract though is not without it’s price.
Examiner.com article here if you want to read the quick overview.
Keep reading to see the terms and ramifications of the deal:
When Philadelphia journalists covering the Flyers originally posted articles about the Pronger extension it was in a price range of around $35m total over a seven year period after the hammer played out the final year of his previous contract this season. That would mean that his cap hit on record per year after this season would be around $5m/year regardless of his actual salary. The way front-loaded contracts in the NHL works is that a player makes huge amounts of money is his first couple of seasons or so and then there are years tacked on to the contract at the end when a player ends up making relatively nothing in comparison. Since the salary cap hit is an average of the total contract salary instead of the actual salary paid to a player, it’s a way that general mangers have found to circumvent the NHL Contract Bargaining Agreement (CBA) and get better players on their roster at bargain cap hits. Both Danny Briere and Mike Richards have contracts like this though Richards’ one is a bit unique. Either way the problems that come with it are usually an elder player taking up more cap space than he’s worth at the end of his contract after years at a bargain price.
The way Pronger’s contract is currently structured he makes $6.25m this year in salary and salary cap hit at the end of his previous contract which was struck with Anaheim. Afterwards he will make $7.6m in years one and two of his new extension with the Flyers followed by $7.2m in year three, $7.0m in year four, $4.0m in year five, and $0.525m in years six and seven which are the ones that drive his total averaged cap hit per year down to just around $5.0m a season. His official salary cap hit for the remainder of his career outside of this season while still in the books under the Anaheim contract will be $4.92m a season. This deal careers Pronger of course until he is at the age of 42.
While that seems like a long time many would not be worried about it because normally when a player retires all of his salary cap hit would come off the books. That it how it would work should a player like Briere retire before his contract is up. Unfortunately, and here’s where some Philadelphia journalists got it wrong, according to the CBA Pronger’s contract is considered a 35+ contract.
The confusion came from the fact that Pronger signed the extension at the age of 34, but according to the CBA the contract year, which is defined as the transition between June 30th and July 1st, is what is most important to a contract. Therefore Pronger’s contract officially counts as a stand alone deal signed on at 11:59 P.M. on June 30th, 2010 regardless of when it was actually signed.
What that means is there are certain limitations to how the Flyers can manage his cap hit should he be unfit to play for any reason including LTIR, retirement, or even uselessness on the blueline should age creep up on him. At the age of 34 about to embark on an extension that carries him until 42 these are some obvious concerns.
So the possible scenarios are as follows:
- Pronger plays out the duration of his new contract until the age of 42 and is a bargain for the first 4-5 seasons while being slightly overpaid the final 2-3.
- Pronger somewhere along the way decides to retire.
- Pronger has a serious injury during his duration and is deemed no longer fit to perform.
- Pronger is bought out or traded so that he can retire without having salary cap ramifications.
In Scenario 1 the Flyers get exactly what they hoped for. Pronger plays out his final year at $6.25m in cap hit this season and continues along with his outstanding career of destruction and production. He’s the most physically dominant defenseman in the NHL right now and is a guaranteed hall-of-famer. People may get annoyed by pests like Hartnell, Emery, Carcillo, Cote, Asham, and Lappy, but Pronger is someone that makes player shit their pants when they see his 6′6 frame coming at them full tilt. Think of Richards’ best hit and put that into every game. Then multiply it by 2 or 3. That’s Pronger’s physicality. His production speaks for itself. He can rack up points however he gets them and is extremely effective with a rocket from the point. With players like Nicklas Lidstrom, who is now 39, still maintaining a status as the best in the NHL there’s no reason to believe Pronger will fall off the map quickly. He’s going to be this dominant for years to come.
We will see him for eight more years though, and a decade of NHL life is long as it is. He will fall off a bit. To what extent, we’re not quite sure. We will have to wait until it happens. If he plays until he’s 42 then at worst all we have is a physical shut down d-man who is better than Hatcher was towards the end of his career, hopefully without knee problems, and who demonstrates a valuable veteran despite being a little overpriced.
Scenario 2 is absolutely worst case scenario for the Flyers’ organization. If a fully healthy Pronger decides to retire we are officially stuck with his cap hit of $4.92m without a player to fill that gap for the remainder of his contract. Honestly Pronger is not the type of player who would retire on a whim. He wants to play in the NHL and compete. If it gets to the point where he is injured somehow and wants to retire based on that injury, I have no doubt in my mind that we will see a Hatcher-esque scenario where he waits on LTIR until the end of his contract and then officially announces his retirement. That of course though is Scenario 3. If it is determined that Pronger cannot continue to physically perform he goes on the long term injury reserve list and his cap hit comes off the books.
Scenario 4 is much the same way that the New Jersey Devils handed some similar issues. In essence it would be the act of us taking Pronger, who is about to retire, and trading him to a team that needs to reach the salary cap floor. Basically there are two parts to the salary cap. There is a ceiling that limits the amount of money you can spend on average per season on your roster, and there is a floor that makes sure every team has at least enough valuable assets within their organization to compete. While teams like the Flyers do not have revenue problems other teams do. Philadelphia has enough revenue to stay near the cap ceiling and even beyond that as you see with their current payroll. Other teams struggle to reach the floor because there just isn’t enough revenue going around. A free salary cap hit of around $5m would work wonders for some teams. Of course the trade would be made under the agreement that Pronger retires as soon as the trade is made.
A buyout of Pronger’s contract would look like this: Chris Pronger Buyout Summer 2014. Basically this is the last year where a buyout saves the cap space considerably. The year after puts the cap hit still at just over $4m for two seasons which is basically the same as leaving him on the books. We save around $1m for two years in cap space, and then pay just over half a million for some seasons after that. Half a million though is not all that much in the NHL’s cap system.
Basically this is all stuff to worry about 6-7 years down the road. Pronger will be here for 8. Even then, while the cap is likely to decrease in the short term making Pronger’s contract a HUGE bargain, it will eventually increase. At that point the cap hit of players like Mike Richards and Chris Pronger will be much less impactful than they are now. So that being said, don’t worry. The organization knows what it’s doing. They know the risks and are willing to deal with them when the time comes. Honestly the risks aren’t all that bad when you think about it. The reward for having multiple years of Chris Pronger is the best part of this by far.
Loading ...