Philadelphia Flyers Overpay for Chris Pronger to Challenge Penguins

(Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

I’m guessing the Flyers’ top brass watched the Stanley Cup Finals closely, and saw how well the Detroit Red Wings were able to use matchups to limit Crosby’s damage.

But, those matchups cut both ways also limiting the Red Wings’ offensive output since so many of their top players were focused defensively on trying to limit the damage of the Pens’ stars.

The Flyers’ hope is that Pronger will give them a guy who they can also use to try and limit or erase transcendent talents like Crosby, Malkin, and Ovechkin.

Will it work?

Maybe.

Mike Richards can play the role of Henrik Zetterberg or Pavel Datsyuk as the shut down forward with Pronger playing the role of Niklas Lidstrom.

But, count me as a skeptic.

The Flyers don’t have much flexibility to adjust if the plan doesn’t work out quite as planned.

This might very well essentially amount to a one year rental.

The Flyers are butting up against the salary cap with seven players earning more than $5 million to suit up in orange and black next season.

It is not at all a sure thing that they’ll be able to resign Pronger, who may very well ask for well north of $7 million for a long term contract despite the likelihood that his play will decline.

He is currently making slightly less than fellow blue-liner Timonen.

Pronger's agent has all of the leverage to push for absolute top dollar knowing that the Flyers' brass absolutely has to re-sign him.  If not, there's the risk of fan mutiny after giving up so much to acquire him.

They've essentially put all their eggs into a 78 inch high basket.

The Flyers almost certainly have to bid a fond farewell to talented forward, Mike Knuble.  Any hope of re-signing him went out the window with Pronger.

It would be more than ironic if Knuble signed with the Penguins, a team that is showing plenty of interest in him, and came back to haunt the Flyers in next year’s playoffs.

The Flyers have significantly impaired the pipeline of cheap young developmental players to fill in the cracks if this goes south.

They may have improved their chances at competing for the Cup for the next couple seasons while almost certainly hurting their long-term chances over the next decade.

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