WINNIPEG, Manitoba — There aren’t many Flyers who have been around long enough to have played against Chris Pronger, who will go in the Hockey Hall of Fame on Monday in Toronto.
Mark Streit has been a defenseman in the NHL for 10 seasons and saw enough of Pronger to have an appreciation for how he played the blue line.
A forward would have a more direct vision of Pronger, whereas a defenseman — who wasn’t battling him — would have perhaps a different take.
“It’s probably easier for a forward to describe what it was like to play against him,” Streit said. “But I always thought he was tough to play against. So big. A great defenseman who had a lot of offense in him.”
Streit is the polar opposite of Pronger in terms of what each brings to the table. Streit came to the NHL from Europe, as a fluid puck mover who was offensively inclined.
Yet he said he quickly saw the different dimension that Pronger brought to the game.
“I think, in general, you always admire in life the attributes you don’t have,” Streit said. “I came here as a different player, a smaller player. I was a more offensive guy and he was all-around really good. His size was so impressive.
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“And the he moved out there for a big man and the amount of minutes he played (27-minute average) is something.”
The Flyers gave up a world of talent to pry Pronger loose from Anaheim — Joffrey Lupul and defensive prospect Luca Sbisa, plus a pair of first-round picks and a conditional third-rounder.
From the mid-1990s to present, Pronger, Kimmo Timonen and Eric Desjardins were the only true No. 1 defensemen the Flyers had.
Losing Pronger to an ocular concussion is something from which the organization still has not recovered.
“He’s not an easy guy to replace,” general manager Ron Hextall said. “We’re all looking for a No. 1 defenseman. I always say it, I don’t think there’s 30 in the league. There’s a lot of teams looking for one.”
Pronger possessed very good speed and extraordinary reach, which made him a master of using his stick in a lethal manner when he wasn’t racking up power-play points.
He also had a fiery temper, which he often brought into his own locker room.
Claude Giroux experienced a little tough love from Pronger in the 2010-11 season.
Pronger was vocal on what he expected out of up-and-coming stars like Giroux and wasn’t shy about making those expectations known in the room.
“He was tough, he didn’t talk a lot but when he did, guys listened,” Giroux said. “When something had to be said, he was dead on it.
“He knew how to win and sometimes to win, you have to [use] tough love. He wasn’t scared of saying what he thought. I don’t think that players didn’t appreciate him.”
Giroux briefly played against him as a player.
“He gave me a pretty good slash,” Giroux said. “When you play against him, you don’t realize how smart and good he is. When you play with him, it makes your job so much easier. I’m talking offensively. He is one of the best defensively, but you don’t realize how he was offensively.
“When we were on the power play, there was good structure. Me and him communicated real well. We kinda moved the puck and got shots through. I learned a lot on the power play from him.”