Chris Pronger played for five teams during nearly two decades in the NHL. He has bounced around just as much since his playing days came to an end.
Writing a book is the latest chapter of the Hall of Fame defenseman's winding post-career journey. “Earned: The True Cost of Greatness from One of Hockey’s Fiercest Competitors” came out Tuesday.
“I’ve done a lot of different things,” Pronger said in a phone interview. “I went down the path of working in the league
office, and then I worked for a team and then I took a break from hockey and helped my wife build out her business and kind of had the entrepreneurial bug and started to dive into business in that regard. And now kind of full-circle. I’ve kind of come back into hockey in the sense of broadcasting and public speaking.”
A stick to the right eye and the ensuing injury and concussion forced him to call it quits in 2011. Pronger said his first steps were getting healthy, retraining the eye and dealing with the post-concussion symptoms.
"That took some time,” Pronger said. “That was a challenge just in watching the games. You still think you can play. I had to realize first and foremost, this is not happening. I’m not physically able to do it.”
He was still under contract when he joined the NHL's Department of Player Safety in 2014 and when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2015, since its bylaws require three years away from the last regulation game played and Pronger qualified. When his contract expired in 2017, he joined the Florida Panthers front office as a senior adviser.
After spending three years in that job, he settled into a quieter life in the St. Louis suburbs, with little desire to get back into the sport that was his life for so long. He was back in arenas this season as part of Amazon Prime's “Monday Night Hockey."
As for what's next, the 51-year-old is not closing the door on working for an NHL team again.
“I never say never,” Pronger said. “I’ve had a couple opportunities over the years. It wasn’t the right fit, either for me or for them. I’m not pining over a job, but I’m certainly willing to have a conversation and talk to somebody, if they’re interested. But it would have to be the right team, the right position, the right job, the right opportunity that made sense and was appealing.”
First, he wanted to write the book, which is as much self-help and motivation and a behind-the-scenes peek at Pronger’s life and career than a retelling of how it all unfolded on the ice and in the public eye.
“The book is more for people than a typical sports book, where you’re reading about my career and a lot of things that maybe you can probably Google about me,” Pronger said. “Not that I’m bearing my soul, per se, but I’m peeling back the onion layers of difficult decisions and how we all have to continue to evolve and grow.”
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