Stanley Cup Playoffs Thread...

I do apologize if I'm coming off as a stubourn ass on this, but this basically a bad nightmare for any Oilers fan and really I do not want to believe until it actually happens or I hear it from Pronger himself. I don't think it'll turn into Yashin part deux because Pronger isn't a selfish piece of shit  - at least publiclly - like Yashin, and this really doesn't seem to be over dollars and cents. Now if the Oil really drag their feet on this and make no effort to at least find a trading partner, then I could see some ugliness down the road.

 

Mr 03,

Don't worry. I'll play the stubborn ass. Ass always.

Pronger's character has always been a question. I'm only surprised that people are surprised.

YHS, etc

 

Point taken.

Beef tends to be a little sensitive about any criticism, perceived or otherwise, about anything Oilerish.

And Mr. Strachan seems to have a rumour a day (cf Brian Burke).

 

keep guessing, friend, thats a swing and a miss. but i can play too: if im not mistaken, one of those magazines you write for has a reasonably popular website that might have been willing to accept a story about your wager.

 

Mr Dad,

I don't work for the dot.com. They have other serviceable talent. And I have to protect a story that I'm working on. I don't want to f-ck up a mag feature for this.

Like I say -- beyond dispute -- it mentioned it here before anyone had it in print. If you knew it, I thought you would have mentioned on one of those libel-proof (okay, libel-retardant) radio shows.

YHS, etc

 

strike two, but somehow i figure youll keep guessing way past the third one.

not in front of the camera (or the microphone). tv producer. and, like i said, myself and the reporters i work with were uncomfortable with reporting what we knew without confirmation from the key particulars.

im curious to read this huge feature that necessitated you holding back information from dot-com teammates when if a person in the "daily media or broadcast sat on it, this would be up there with Jim Taylor sitting on the Gretzky trade."

must be a basw or pulitzer candidate.

 

Mr Big-time "Producer,"

Be curious, jackass. Oh to know who you are. (Head scratching.) I sat through three weeks of build-up to a draft with a club & execs, war-room, lists, the freakin works. Give me a call. I'll read the story to you when it comes out. Everything I've learned about journalism I've learned from TV--it's time I give back. (And if you're the producer whom I called me between Trailer Park Boy shoots about adapting my next book for TV film, my apologies.)

YHS, etc

 

sounds terrific.

good luck with that. never been done before. certainly reason to hold back info on a potential pronger deal.

anyway, our attempts at outing one another are ruining a pretty good thread.

 

Mr de Mille,

By way of full explanation: Because some names/deals/information had draft-day implications I promised an embargo on anything that came out of my time behind closed doors. Nothing until after the draft, nothing before publication. I kept my promise. (Only at such time that I knew the chase was on re Pronger did I offer sj's a little 411.) And the fact is, like I say, I'm not in the daily press. I'm more concerned with stuff in a larger news cycle. Pronger has virtually nothing to do with the story I'm working on--if it showed up the day after I spoke with the GM I was working with, he'd shut down right away. If you're in the daily press, fine, chase another story. In my position, no freakin' good, weeks and $$$ out the window.

Everyone said Pronger was heading to New York--I wonder how many recruiting vists the Mrs gets.

Can someone tell me what Dave Taylor was doing at the LA table? easy to tell scouts who are through with their organizations. They don't go back to the team suites and they congregate like lepers. Their big day comes four days before they clear waivers.

YHS, etc

YHS, etc

 

I assume you speak of the Rangers, who would be going back the other way?
Any other teams seriously stepping up to the table for Pronger?

 

Mr 03

I don't know that there are talks ... just that smart money ranks NYR as the obvious front-runner. Someone else suggested that four teams in more major US markets (with Toronto as an outside shot) would get Pronger out of Dagwood Pronger out of the doghouse.

YHS, etc

 

The team that comes to my mind would be Philly for Gagne and Pittkanen or some combination like that. I don't know who off of TO Edmonton would want, certainly not an over-the-hill Sundin (and I don't think the Leafs are too keen on moving a combination Carlo, Wellwood, Stajan and Steen), and then with the Rangers that's a group of players for the most part have been underachievers, except when placed together - something about the Czech connection. The thing is a marquee player wouldhave to be headed back the other way. Lowe says he's already received a number of phone calls over Pronger, and he will not be limited to a certain number of teams because there is no no-trade clause in Pronger's contract, although Joanne Ireland in the Edmonton Journal quoted Pat Laforge as saying the request had been for a team south of the border. I don't see this being solved quickly, and would be very surprised if it is done before free agency starts up on July 1. I anticipate a bidding war, and that is good for Edmonton.