Chris Pronger, who today would end up like him?

[The Macho Man]

Which peak season? The one where he won MVP?

The one where he was the best player, on a Cup finalist, with a team that missed the playoffs the year before he was there. Wait never mind he did that twice. And won his only Cup in between.

Lidstrom being amazing doesn't make Pronger any less amazing for what he was.

TBF every team missed the playoffs the year before the Oilers made game 7.

 

[Ducks in a row]

Very impressive resume. Great player. HHOF-worthy.

Can't sniff Lidstrom's jock. **** I think Chara has a good argument over him.

Pronger with more regular season points in fewer games. Better playoff performer. Helping 3 teams make the finals. I don't see a good argument of Chara over Pronger.

 

[The Macho Man]

Pronger with more regular season points in fewer games. Better playoff performer. Helping 3 teams make the finals. I don't see a good argument of Chara over Pronger.

Chara was the better defender. Their primes largely overlapped and Chara had superior Norris finishes.

Chara is the best pure defender of the 21st century. Maybe the best since Langway - except he also provides some offense.

 

[22FUTON9]

I don't know why but it seems like Pronger and Forsberg are always underrated by a bunch of people here. More so than any other player who played in the 90s-00s

 

[The Abusement Park]

Zadorov is kinda similar I guess? But clearly won’t end up as good as him.

 

[Aceboogie]

Pronger with more regular season points in fewer games. Better playoff performer. Helping 3 teams make the finals. I don't see a good argument of Chara over Pronger.

Longevity would be the main one. Chara did go to 2 SCFs and was a beast in 2013, but otherwise Id say Pronger had a higher peak. Personally id pick Pronger but I think the 2 are closer than people think. Pronger just got immortalized as all retired players do. Chara will too

 

[MessierII]

Longevity would be the main one. Chara did go to 2 SCFs and was a beast in 2013, but otherwise Id say Pronger had a higher peak. Personally id pick Pronger but I think the 2 are closer than people think. Pronger just got immortalized as all retired players do. Chara will too

Pronger is the only D man since Bobby Orr to win the Hart. He’s not just immortalized because he retired. He was a legend and had he not played at the same time as Lidstrom he would be considered the best D of his generation.

 

[BenchBrawl]

Pronger was supposed to become Larry Robinson.He didn't, but he still had a great career.

To find good comparables you need to scan throughout history because the prototype is rare.

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

Really unique player.

Rasmus Ristolainen probably has the best chance in my opinion, he has that mean streak and high-end #1 type ability. Shouldn't hurt to have Dahlin as his partner more than likely too. I will be interested to see the next step in his development. But he has the mean streak you would need to be a Pronger type.

 

[Leafs87]

Hedman or Weber IMO. Another player with a long shot is Parayko. Pronger was my all time favourite D man.

 

[Brucelenok]

There is no really anyone who similar to prime/peak Pronger. The guy was unique. The closest guy I can think of is Doughty. If he wouldn't be primadonna and be one of the toughest and scariest guy to play against, he would pretty much be today's Pronger, in terms of skills they are not far of. But out of all defenceman who I feel can somewhat resemble Pronger is Provorov in 3-4 years. He is already great for his age. In 3-4 years, I think he can end up as the best overall defenseman in the league.

 

[Shaman464]

No one is like Pronger currently.He was a rare combination.His only weaknesses were indiscipline and perhaps lack of loyalty to franchises.

He was a better player than Nicklas Lidstrom, but he had a weaker career.Still a great career though.At his best he was probably the most dominant defenseman since Denis Potvin with maybe Raymond Bourque thrown in-between.

The Nick Lidstrom line is a joke right? Pronger isn't even in the same ballpark as Lidstrom. Pronger was worse at every aspect of the game beyond being a thug. From points, to award case, to cups, to defensive play, to peak performances, there is no place that you can point to Pronger being a better defenseman. There is a reason why the question usually is who slots in behind Orr when it comes to Lidstrom, not if he was a good to great d-man of his era alone.

 

[Scott Stevens]

I have a fun Pronger trivia question it’s easy to nail people with.

“Who passed the puck in the 2002 gold medal game that Mario Lemieux pretended to accept and let go through his legs to paul kariya?”

 

[Brock Radunske]

There is no one in the league or in the pools like him

 

[turkleton85]

The Nick Lidstrom line is a joke right? Pronger isn't even in the same ballpark as Lidstrom. Pronger was worse at every aspect of the game beyond being a thug. From points, to award case, to cups, to defensive play, to peak performances, there is no place that you can point to Pronger being a better defenseman. There is a reason why the question usually is who slots in behind Orr when it comes to Lidstrom, not if he was a good to great d-man of his era alone.

as a red wings fan, i think you're wrong. I think they are pretty much in the same tier as players.

 

[BleedBlue14]

Right - and he's one of my favorite players. That being said I think his peak dominance is overstated (his Hart/Norris season was weak in competition for both and he won by 1 point over Jagr who only played 63 games), it was a weak Norris class with Bourque having a down year and Lidstrom having not yet established his reputation (Lids outscored Pronger by 11 points and I have a hard time believing Pronger was 11 points better defensively than Lidstrom entering his prime).

Pronger is exalted because he's the last of those "old school" defenders - the ones that would just as soon break your ribs as tie up your stick. So he gets extra old school cred for that. Toward the latter years of his career he became known for stepping it up in the playoffs, but his early career he was known for the opposite (and his one Cup win came with what is probably the best post-lockout team assembled with another HHOFer on the blueline).

Right agreed, but he was an amazing shut down defender. Something that we don't really see too often getting into the 50-60 point range anymore.

To the italicized point. Most of that has to do with him being on the Blues in those years. We are doomed to mediocrity in the playoffs no matter how good of a team we have. Don't hate the player hate the circumstances

 

[The Macho Man]

Pronger is the only D man since Bobby Orr to win the Hart. He’s not just immortalized because he retired. He was a legend and had he not played at the same time as Lidstrom he would be considered the best D of his generation.

He won a Hart that a) he probably shouldn't have won, and b) only won because Jagr missed ~20 games and Bure missed ~10, and Sakic scored 84 points in 60 games. He narrowly won the vote over Bure and Jagr because it was the first season in ages (maybe since expansion from the O6?) that the Art Ross went to a player who scored fewer than 100 points (Jagr won with 96 points in like 63 games - Bure was second with 94 in 72 or something like that).

The fact he won the trophy is impressive, but it's not like his 99-00 was the best season by a Dman since Orr. It was just the weakest season for forwards since... maybe the entire league history up to that point. Hell, Lidstrom probably deserved the Norris over him that year.

 

[Sweetpotato]

Darnell Nurse is first player to come to mind, I think he's probably closest stylistically but he obviously doesn't have the same offensive or defensive IQ.

Parayko or Jones come to mind but they don't have the mean streak.

Ekblad is close but doesn't have the skating.

Pronger was a unicorn, I'd be very surprised if we see THAT complete of a package ever again.

 

[Bouboumaster]

Shae Weber, but more agressive

 

[SML2]

Pronger is the most intimidating player in league history. Who else could scare the league into allowing him to go in LTIR due to a head injury but hold a job in, wait for it... player safety for the NHL. So he gets his full salary while holding a second job and then gets into the hall of fame while his contract is still being paid for two more years! The way the league allowed the blatant circumvention of the salary cap in the Pronger case is shameful.

 

[snag]

Darnell Nurse is first player to come to mind, I think he's probably closest stylistically but he obviously doesn't have the same offensive or defensive IQ.

Parayko or Jones come to mind but they don't have the mean streak.

Ekblad is close but doesn't have the skating.

Pronger was a unicorn, I'd be very surprised if we see THAT complete of a package ever again.

Eleanor!

 

[Jamin]

I don't know why but it seems like Pronger and Forsberg are always underrated by a bunch of people here. More so than any other player who played in the 90s-00s

Majority of career in the west

 

[Jamin]

The Nick Lidstrom line is a joke right? Pronger isn't even in the same ballpark as Lidstrom. Pronger was worse at every aspect of the game beyond being a thug. From points, to award case, to cups, to defensive play, to peak performances, there is no place that you can point to Pronger being a better defenseman. There is a reason why the question usually is who slots in behind Orr when it comes to Lidstrom, not if he was a good to great d-man of his era alone.

He was better 06 playoffs

 

[Aceboogie]

Really unique player.

Rasmus Ristolainen probably has the best chance in my opinion, he has that mean streak and high-end #1 type ability. Shouldn't hurt to have Dahlin as his partner more than likely too. I will be interested to see the next step in his development. But he has the mean streak you would need to be a Pronger type.

Were talking Chris Pronger, not Corey Potter

 

[Esq]

If a Pronger-type existed now, he'd spend 10 minutes / night in the box.