Pronger's arrival a special occasion for Flyers

Yesterday was one of those moments.

A little more than a week after trading Joffrey Lupul, Luca Sbisa and two first-round picks to Anaheim for Chris Pronger, Snider was sitting at the table in the Flyers' practice facility in Voorhees, N.J., with the towering, 6-6 defenseman to his right.

As usual, Snider tried to downplay the importance of the moment and would not compare Pronger to any other big-name player brought in.

"I don't like to compare situations like that," Snider said when asked. "We're just happy to have Chris here. He speaks for himself. Everybody knows how he's playing, how he's been playing right up until now and we know that he has a lot of years left. We're really excited."

The question wasn't really about comparing players or situations, but more about what this all really means.

And it can be said - and is already being said by many who follow sports in the city - that the Flyers have traded for a 34-year-old veteran they feel could be the linchpin who swings a young and talented team from being a possible contender to a true one.

Those are the moments that bring Snider to the table when the weather is warm.

"When you can add an All-Star, probably Hall of Fame defenseman to your defense, particularly our defense where we need a little more strength and a few more big guys in front of the net, it's a major thing for us. It strengthens our team," Snider said.

"We gave up a lot for him. It better be a big moment."

And so it happened again yesterday.

Pronger, one of the toughest and skilled defensemen in the NHL, pulled on a Flyers jersey with the No. 20 in honor of his father, who wore that number in a recreation hockey league. He assumes the role of tough guy, leader and mentor to a young team that seemed to lack something at the end of last season and was eliminated from the playoffs in the first round.

And he easily took on the mantle of the "missing piece" player, a role he has served before on several teams - from his early days in Hartford as an 18-year-old under then-coach Holmgren, to Anaheim, the team he led to a Stanley Cup in 2006-07.

"It is what it is," Pronger said after being prodded about the role for probably the fifth time in 20 minutes. "You're brought in to win. There's pressure on the whole team. There are expectations and, as I said, nobody puts higher expectations on themselves than myself.

"I expect to perform at a certain level and I'm disappointed when we don't win. At the end of the day, the bottom line is winning and winning a Stanley Cup, and that's what we're here to do."

Missing piece, final piece, a move to win now. It's really all the same. The Flyers needed a tough defenseman and a strong leader. They didn't have it and now they do. It could be the kind of move that brings the team together and makes it, as Holmgren repeated yesterday, "a harder team to play against."

Pronger has 1 year left on his contract and will need an extension. Both player and team said they want this to be his last career stop, and work on that is being done.

"I would love to finish my career here, and probably could," Pronger said.

If ever a player were suited to this role at this very moment, Pronger is that player. Forget about those who have come before him: Peter Forsberg, Jeremy Roenick, Eric Lindros. They were all different moments, different players at different ages and stages of their careers, and can't easily be compared to now.

But on this Flyers team, made up of a core of younger stars who lacked punch and toughness on the back end and real veteran leadership in the locker room, Pronger is a fit.

Snider and Holmgren - and even Pronger - all said it wasn't fair to place all of that on one player.

"He's one guy, he's one player, he's a big addition to our team and when people say that he's the player that's going to do it, it's unfair to him," Snider said.

That doesn't show in Pronger. On his first day among the Philadelphia sports media, Pronger showed that he is comfortable in this role. He was affable, answered all questions and showed a sense of humor that will take him a long way.

When asked what statement he would want to make to players like Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby, he quipped: "I think you know the answer to that."

The answer to that would be to make the front of the Flyers' net a hard place to be, to make the Flyers a harder team to play against. Pronger has no problem with that.

But that will be just part of his role here, the on-ice role. His off-ice role, what he does in the locker room, will be just as important . . . maybe even more important.

And he is well aware of what that means.

"The role will be twofold: To help the young guys along, to help them develop and achieve their potential, and to lead by example; go out and play the way I have throughout the course of my career and be a force back on the blue line."

No interest in Shanahan

 

Despite rumors to the contrary, Paul Holmgren said the Flyers are not interested in free-agent winger Brendan Shanahan. Shanahan, 40, scored six goals and had eight assists last season for the Devils. *