According to ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun, the NHL will announce the hiring of Chris Pronger as a member of the NHL’s Player Safety Departement on Friday.
Once hired, Pronger will assume the role vacated by Brian Leetch. Pronger’s role would include analyzing plays, participation in league hearings and offering input to Senior Vice President of Player Safety Stephane Quintal.
Coincidentally, Pronger turns 40 on Friday. He has not played an NHL game since November 19, 2011 due to a career-ending concussion.
Pronger has remained an employee of the Flyers. He is earning $4 million from the Flyers this season and is set to earn $575,000 in each of the next two seasons before his contract expires. Pronger has worked for the Flyers as a consultant to their scouting staff, though he no longer serves in that role. Since 2012, the Flyers have buried Pronger’s $4.9 million cap hit on the long-term injured reserve.
He cannot retire. Doing so would put the Flyers in salary cap hell. They would have to trade away some of their best players to get under the cap. Philadelphia currently has $2,055,000 in available cap space with Pronger on the LTIR.
The question being raised by many is whether Pronger serving as a consultant to Quintal would be a conflict of interest.
In all likelihood, Pronger would not be included in decisions involving the Flyers. Yet, the league will allow Pronger to weigh in on disciplinary issues involving the Flyers’ Metropolitan Division rivals.
Fans and columnists went nuts when former Detroit Red Wing and New York Ranger Brendan Shanahan handed down suspensions as the league’s former head of discipline.
Sabres beat writer Mike Harrington accused Shanahan of a bias for not suspending Rangers winger Rick Nash for a controversial hit on Florida Panthers on March 19, 2013.
Imagine the furor when the league is forced to suspend a Pittsburgh Penguin, New Jersey Devil or New York Ranger.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has no problem with the issued raised by Pronger’s imminent hire.
“There are salary-cap reasons why he couldn’t officially retire, but if in fact we go that route, I’m not so sure that presents any problem at all to deal with,” Bettman told reporters in Los Angeles. “He’s done playing. He gets paid no matter what from the Flyers. He doesn’t owe them anything.”
To most everyone else, the optics look really bad.
Rule 26 of the current Collective Bargaining Agreement specifically states that an individual cannot be paid by both a team and the league:
A Club (directly or indirectly through a “Club Actor,” i.e., any owner, shareholder, Club Affiliated Entity, the NHL or third party acting at the behest of a Club) and a Player (directly or indirectly through a “Player Actor,” i.e., his Certified Agent or any other individual, any entity, or the NHLPA, acting on behalf of the Player) may not, at any time, enter into undisclosed agreements of any kind, express or implied, oral or written, or promises, undertakings, representations, commitments, inducements, assurances of intent, or understandings of any kind involving consideration of any kind to be paid, furnished or made available or guaranteed to the Player, or Player Actor, by the Club or Club Actor either prior to, during, or after the term of the Player’s SPC.
By welcoming Pronger to the Department of Player Safety, the league is courting negative press and giving fans a reason to be paranoid.
