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The Pronger trade


yave1964

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That type of a trade that does not produce a Stanley Cup is a complete and utter failure

well, A) no trade produces a stanley cup. it doesn't work that way, sum of parts equaling championship. blood, sweat and luck produce a stanley cup, the roster only increases or decreases the odds. and the roster can never push those odds to 100%. or drop to 0%, for that matter.

B) based on that, evaluating a trade after the fact , on how things worked out...that's tough. to my mind, there've been 10 or so pronger-level defensemen in the league, ever. i don't want to get into a "i can count 12 better than him" thing, my point is his mix of ability, size, and attitude were almost to the point of unique...if you want that on your team you have to pay for that. unless you get really really lucky and draft the guy or aquire him before he is at the level. and it's not like the flyers got him once he was broken down. he was still a .5ppg guy, top notch shut down dman with as much snarl as ever. the contract the flyers gave him was crazy, given his age, but the fact they paid for him at all...it was a must-buy situation to me. players like that simply don't come around often enough to pass when given the opportunity to add one to your roster.

it didn't work out, and that sucks. should be noted, though that it didn't not work out because he was old and decrepit, it didn't work out because he took a stick to the eye. that could have happened to absolutely anyone at any point in their career.

as for the price paid....sbisa looked promising while in philly, but for the moment is kind of an unremarkable 4-5 dman. lupul, whatever. 2009 1st rounder...who'd the flyers lose out on there? ryan o'reilly? and the 29th pick in 2010?

anyway, to me, yes, i'd do that deal again. basically nothing large was removed from the current roster for him, and the rest of the package was not huge. came down to one underperforming forward, one longshot dman, and two late first rounders. that's not a back breaking lot.

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@aziz Luca Sbisa just turned 23 in Jan.....while he is not fantasy hockey relevant, his point totals have never come....he still skates like the wind, has a real mean streak, plays a respectable 19:49 per game, sit's a very nice 60th overall in the whole league at 64 hits....has a respectable 34 blocked shots.....so calling him unremarkable at this point, it's real early for that type of label. He's a heart and soul type that makes up a very important piece of one of the best defenses in the league....and he's a plus one, despite playing a lot of time and hardly getting any points.....that's a nice stat in and of itself.

To me, the back breaker is Emerson Etem....he would look great in the O&B...he just started playing, and I'm really impressed with his speed and moves, he will be a stud....who knows, maybe we dont' take him, but I think where he went, we would have snagged him up.

Pronger had WAY to much tread on his tires to give this up.....

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Some food for thought- In 1996 the Kings traded a 35 year old Wayne Gretzky (yes, that Wayne Gretzky) to St Louis for the following:

Roman Vopat

Patrice Tardif

Craig Johnson

1997 1st round pick

Johnson probably had the "best" NHL career of what the Kings got back, 557 games and 173 pts. The pick was used on Matt Zultek, who never played a game in the NHL. Tardiff played 38 games in the NHL, accumulating 5 whole points (4g, 1a). Vopat played 133 games (48 for the Flyers) and amassed 6 goals and 14 assists.

My point? The Flyers actually gave up more, much more, for a 35 year old Pronger than St Louis gave up for a 35 year old Gretzky. Makes one wonder, doesn't it?

@jammer2 - Sbisa would be a perfect fit for the Flyers right now. He wouldn't be a #1 but he would easily slide right onto the 2nd pair, could spare Timo from some minutes when needed, and can play all situations.

Edited by JackStraw
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