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Friday, June 12, 2009 3:57 PM

GM denies Pronger trade

Eric Duhatschek

There is some compelling logic behind the possible move – of the Anaheim Ducks’ Chris Pronger moving to the Los Angeles Kings for Jack Johnson plus a No. 1 draft choice, speculation that was making the rounds Friday prior to the seventh game of the Stanley Cup final. After all, the Ducks may ultimately need to trade Pronger to get to the $46-million (U.S.) budget that they’ll operate with next year. If they can coax Scott Niedermayer back to play again and can’t trade J.S. Giguere’s contract, it may be an option they have to look at.

But for now, the official word from Ducks’ GM Bob Murray, in a short but pointed e-mail note, is that it did not happen. In fact, Murray texted back a NO (caps his), when asked if there was any truth to the report.

Certainly, there can be no official deal anyway between teams until the Stanley Cup is won tonight. The roster freeze that goes into effect at the NHL trade deadline remains in place until the season is over – for purposes of fairness, more than anything else. If Detroit and Pittsburgh can’t do deals, no one else can either. Teams can talk; they can frame the parameters of deals; but they can’t do anything official until the commish hands the Cup to either Nicklas Lidstrom or Sidney Crosby.

It may well be that at some point, the Ducks do move Pronger for the reasons cited above; and it may be that the Kings also shop the first pick in this draft (because they’ve got lots of prospects in the system), along with Johnson (who hasn’t panned out the way they’d hoped) to upgrade for next year’s playoff push ( a possibility touched on in an earlier post this week on Dany Heatley's availability). But for now, it’s just the beginning of the silly season - the juicy gossip that’ll heat up the airwaves and cyberspace between now and the draft. Isn't it great?

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Globe On Hockey Contributors

Eric Duhatschek

Eric Duhatschek

Eric was the winner of the Hockey Hall Of Fame's Elmer Ferguson award for "distinguished contributions to hockey writing" in 2001. A graduate of the University of Western Ontario's grad school of journalism, he began covering hockey in 1978 and after spending 20 years covering the NHL and the Calgary Flames, joined The Globe in 2000. Eric has covered four Winter Olympics, 19 Stanley Cup finals, every Canada Cup and World Cup since 1981, plus two world championships.

 
Allan Maki

Allan Maki

Allan joined The Globe in 1997 after spending 19 years as a reporter and columnist at the Calgary Herald. Born in Thunder Bay, he graduated from the Ryerson School of Journalism in 1977. A past president of the Football Writers of Canada, Allan has covered every Grey Cup since 1980. He's been to seven Olympic Games and covered everything from rodeos to the World Series to the Super Bowl.

 

James Mirtle

James Mirtle joined The Globe as an editor and reporter in the sports department in 2005 and now covers the Toronto Maple Leafs. A graduate of Ryerson University and Thompson Rivers University, he has written about hockey from junior on up the past decade and has a background in new media, statistical analysis and blogging. You can follow him on Twitter here.

 

Matthew Sekeres

Matthew is The Globe's national sports correspondent in B.C., covering the Canucks, Lions and other sports happenings on the west coast. Montreal-born and Ottawa-raised, Matthew is a graduate of Carleton University's School of Journalism. He has worked at four metropolitan dailies and for TSN. Matthew has covered the Beijing Olympics, three Super Bowls, the NBA Finals, nine Grey Cups and the Stanley Cup playoffs.

 

David Shoalts

A native of Wainfleet, Ont., David joined The Globe in 1984 as a layout and copy editor in the sports section. He attended the University of Waterloo and Conestoga College. After graduating in 1978, he worked at the Calgary Herald and the Calgary Sun, and later the Toronto Sun. He has covered the Toronto Maple Leafs and the NHL since 1990 and became a hockey columnist in 2003.

 

Darren Yourk

Darren is the editor of globesports.com and host of the Hockey Roundtable podcast.