Get Used To Seeing Chris Pronger Around These Parts

It was really only a matter of time before this happened, but alas, I desparately something to post on other than Keith Olbermann and/or Manny Ramirez. Chris Pronger has signed a multi-year extension with the Flyers after being traded by the Anaheim Ducks with only one year left in his contract. From CSN Philly.

On Monday Chris Pronger said he would like to retire a Flyer. A day later, Pronger took a step in that direction, agreeing to a seven-year extension. According to sources, the deal is worth $34.45 million.

The extension will begin in the 2010-11 season and run through 2017 with Pronger earning $7.6 million in both the first two years, $7.2 million in 2012-13, $7 million in 2013-14, $4 million in 2014-15, and $525,000 in each of the final two years of the deal.

Pronger will be 42 at the time the contract expires.

The contract is front loaded in order to keep it cap friendly. It is structured similar to the deal signed by Mike Richards, also a client of agent Pat Morris. In 2007 Richards signed a 12-year, $69 million deal.

“I am very excited to be able to retire a Philadelphia Flyer and I am looking forward to many years with the Flyers logo on my chest,” Pronger said in a statement released by the team. “I think both parties wanted to get it handled in a timely fashion in order to move on and get things set up for future years down the line so that the Flyers could make moves either this year or next year, and know that they had me in place.”

This is either a really great move or it's going to bite the Flyers in the ass big time. They gave up a whole heck of a lot, including 2 1st round draft picks, in order to get Pronger, and with all that they gave up, if the Flyers do not win a Stanley Cup with him in the next few years, this move will likely be regarded as a failure. I like the move insomuch as they got a really good, veteran defenseman (something they need) whose style of play matches the style of the Flyers themselves, but if the price was too high and the Flyers can't win a Cup in the next few years, the Flyers could end up suffering big-time in the long run.