Flyers make a possibly bad move

There's completely unexpected hockey news on a warm summer night here. The Philadelphia Flyers got defenseman Chris Pronger from the Anaheim Ducks in a trade (along with someone I never heard of, center Ryan Dingle). This in itself isn't necessarily bad. What makes this risky is the rest of the story.

To make the deal the Flyers gave up forward Joffrey Lupul and his long-term, rather expensive contract, which is okay in this salary cap era. However, they also gave up a young promising defenseman, Luca Sbisa, as well as their first-round pick in this year's NHL draft (being held tonight) and their first-round pick next year, plus a conditional 3rd-round pick.



Pronger is 34 years old. It's hard to tell how long he'll continue to perform at a high level. It's pretty much impossible to judge what the draft picks would've turned into and Sbisa, while showing promise, still isn't a proven commodity. But Pronger only has one year remaining on his current contract. If he leaves after this season (and he once forced a trade from Edmonton because his family was unhappy there) the Flyers may have given up an awful lot for very little.

But for one year, at least, we get to stare at the guy on the left (and still kinda miss staring at Eric Lindros, the guy on the right).