OverDrive - Pronger on the Panthers' dominant structure, Edmonton's bounce back mindset and Kreider's new home

Episode Date: June 11, 2025

Hockey Hall of Famer and Stanley Cup Champion Chris Pronger joined OverDrive to discuss the Panthers' successful start to the Stanley Cup Final against the Oilers, how Edmonton can bounce back, the physical element from Florida, Sam Bennett's value, Chris Kreider landing with the Ducks, the free agency market and more.

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I wish you would have gave me a heads up. I would have been wearing it. Yes. And by the way, noodles, don't ever speak of the Peets in that tone with the maroon. Awful colors, awful maroon. Yeah, classy. Old school classy. Classy maroon.

Exactly. Yeah, because those old Lethbridge Hurricanes jerseys were so sexy. I'll tell you what, that's Washington Capital's colors. They look pretty damn good, you know, don't you think? Maroon, I don't know, like a... Honestly, I remember I have to dig up a lethbridge hurricane that would be pretty cool next time we have bronze on you guys have your jackets on and

or really good school on all of you got a golf storm jacket i don't think no matter how much progress i've made in the fitness category that baby just a happen at the time that one a work it's funny to say that i don't know i saw a post today with a young jeff o'neill standing outside of his locker there he is look at him pretending like he's going to class

why is there a beer picture inside your locker you know the first thing these dummies say prongs are like those books that's exactly what everyone says those are fake books are there haha still have to study like other school books they said fake books profit promise her perhaps empty page books right the photographer bought it but why did you have a picture of a beer were you in like middle school where were you is

that high school was stupid high school stuff you put stuff in your s your locker and it was like all my buddies we are you'll get canadian uh... that's enough ofeter burrow p are my fellow pizza on this yes legend legend you guys want thank you one of you guys for bringing out one of the positives from the pic all right there is a god knows the brown pants just weren't cutting it

so good but look at those pants. Good God. The shirt is wild. You got a Holley, a Mike Ricci and a Molson Canadian. Yeah. I love it. Everything's covered. Yeah, so Prongs, we were talking about the Oilers and multiple days off in the same city,

how rare this is in the cup final. I don't know if you ever experienced anything like that where you're on the road, you're in a hotel, you spoke the day after the game and then the next day you kind of just don't want to talk to anybody. That appears to be what happened today down in Florida. Can you understand where the the Oilers and in particular their best players are maybe coming from? Yeah, I think they've been talking an awful lot not only after the, but throughout the course of the playoffs. They understand what they need to do to change the tune or the temperature of the last game. I look at that as an anomaly and something that they want to just kind of axe off the

page and just be done with. If they're talking about game three instead of game four today, I think it becomes a bit of a nuisance and a headache. And if you're them, you just want to kind of get after game four and prepare and have an understanding of the mistakes that they made in game three, things that they can do to change the outcome and then go execute on them in game four. Prongs, you think anything, you know, they're the oldest team in the league, they're a veteran team. You think anything needs to be said or is it more just you take a look at some of the dumb mistakes you made and, you know, some of the, you know, lack of discipline plays? I mean, do you think there has to be, you know, a raw, raw speech or, you know, these type of meetings where everybody sits down and kind of lays it out there or do you just

park it and say everybody's stunk, let's get ready for game four type of thing? I think it's part of the latter, but I think it's also the leadership group standing up and saying, we need to be better discipline wise. We have to play a discipline with respect to penalties, and whether you agree with the penalties or not, discipline the penalties and then discipline to their game, to the structure, to the way that they play and not get off track trying to match Florida's physicality or match the way that they play and focus on what their identity is, focus on how they play the game. And whatever they're doing, they need to fix their second periods because they suck. Quite and simple. Yeah.

Prongs, it seems like if the Oilers get to a 3-1 deficit and it's McDavid-Dry-Seidel time being paired up, isn't it time to just start the game with those two and just say, go win us the hockey game? Or is there just not enough depth there after that like depending on Nugent Hopkins or whatever? Because after that you need something Yeah, no, uh If they lose if they lose game four, I don't like their chances I think if you're Edmonton, this is a must win. You got to get it back to two two

You needed to split The two games in florida either games three, which clearly they're not gonna win that one, and now game four. They need this game in a bad way to kind of get back to Edmonton, change the narrative again from, oh, Florida's rolling, and Florida this, Florida that, and get back to what we heard in games one and game two, that it's great hockey, it could have went either way, and they're very very very competitive game three was I think it got off to a good

start for the Oilers but it got off the rails real quick. Well Chris Pronger and you know they're officiating whenever you have a game like that it pops up you know the losing team's not going to be happy and they they have a gripe here or there for some of the calls and maybe some of the missed calls on the other side of it. How would you anticipate or how would you expect the refs to officiate tomorrow night? Do you think it's more likely they call a lot earlier or do you think they put the whistles away? That's a great question and Noodles can probably attest to this. I wasn't exactly the cleanest person with the officiating. Right.

Yes. So you hope they put the whistle away. But no, with respect to just how you talk to them, how you manage them. I did a lot of yelling early on in my career and kind of was a little tepid as I aged, but I think they need to focus on their game. I don't think they can get caught up. They need to play with a physical edge at times. You know, the player, you know, Frederick and Kane

and Perry being greasy around the net and, you know, Connor Brown getting in on the four check, things of that nature, but they cannot step out of their comfort zone and the way that they play just to, whether it be appease the fans or try to get several scores with Florida in the physicality department, they're not going to be as strong or as physical as the Florida Panthers, period.

They need to play in the offensive zone, they need to cycle the puck, they need to go low to high, they need to get traffic to the front of the net, they need to compete to get to the front of the net and get in Bobrovsky's face and his eyes so that he can't see point shots, shots from the half wall, etc. They didn't do a very good job in game three. That's one of many things that they need that is a simple solution and a simple fix. But overall, I think it's just compete and not getting so focused on the nonsense that we saw later in the third period. When the game was out of hand and it really doesn't matter, you're trying to send a message, you're trying to

get a few licks in and I've certainly been there and done that. But at the end of the day, the players are just turning the page. They're not focused on what happened in game three, they're focused on game four, getting off to a good start and then rolling from there. What did you see defensively from the Oilers? As far as their D, do you think that they moved the puck fast enough? Were they efficient? To me, I thought they got caved in and it was Florida's floor check that really gave them some problems. Yeah, they had problems with their gap

control. They had problems holding the blue line. But I think the biggest issue, and we see it in the second period, but we actually saw it in the first period as well. They're holding the puck too long. They're waiting for a play, waiting for a play, waiting for a play. And sometimes the best play is just off the glass into the neutral zone, bouncing pucks, you never know what's going to happen. You've got forwards coming with speed and just kind of live to fight another day. And I did not see that from them. You know, the, the Sam Reinhardt goal, which I thought was a backbreaker for them.

Klingberg turns a puck over. Yes, he runs into the referee, but he was already in the process of turning the puck over. And, whether Skinner, I think Skinner was screened a little bit on that shot. Warman went down to block it, went through his legs. And, you know, he's got to just, as he's coming around the net, he's got to rip that off the glass and just get it out. Yeah.

Prongs, if you were a GM and you wanted to sign Sam Bennett this summer, how much would you pay him? It depends on where you're playing. Is this a no-tax state? Exactly. We're not going to factor in the tax. All right. I would not pay him $10 million, personally.

I wouldn't. He's earned himself into the 8, 8.5 range. You start getting up into the 10s, you're overpaying. You got to get into the playoffs, too. And he, listen, he provides something that a lot of players do not as we know, physical score goals, face-offs, kill penalties, power play. You know, he's a great fit where he's at. I personally don't foresee him not resigning in Florida because of the fit and also because of what they have up the middle. They've got Barkov in the one

hole, they can put Bennett in the two hole for now, middle and i'm barcode in the one hole they can put bed in the two hole for now and they got one down the three all in the making role for a full you know whatever and as londell goes and and then it may be falls off a bit move into the three all in and one dollar per second which clearly he can

he's on his way towards trending to to a number two center in the national occupancy and he's on his way towards trending to a number two center in the national hockey league. So a lot of reports over the last 24 hours that Anaheim may be acquiring Chris Crider and they were the ones that went out and got Truba last year. It's almost like the Rangers in Anaheim, they just have this bat line set up where Anaheim will take whoever the Rangers are willing to give up and Truba's still got game, big contract, Crider's got a lot of game, big contract though and it sounds like Anaheim will take whoever the Rangers are willing to give up and Trubestil, you know, got game big contract Crieder's got a lot of game big contract though, and it sounds like Anaheim's want to eat it all

You know if and when that happens, we don't know what's gonna go the other way But what do you what do you make of you know Crieder being the guy that New York clearly decided, you know He's gonna represent our Identity change something's got to happen and Crieder is gonna be the guy that goes before you answer prongs. Yeah, Rangers Yeah, I have exactly no stones now zero They're playing they're playing finesse now the New York Rangers are in the finesse game And we've now just seen how that plays out Right, so, you know, I think Chris Crider actually is a great fit for the Ducks in the sense that they've

got a bunch of young centers. He plays with pace. I think the big knock on him is his inconsistency. He just hasn't shown up with the same effort night in, night out. But he's been to Stanley Cup finals. He's been a key cog on a number of teams the Olympics four nations and obviously the Rangers and You know, I think he brings another element up front that they they need and a little experience You know to help with those younger younger players up the middle and I think it's a good fit. I

Know he's not he doesn't have that much left on his on his contract so it actually I think makes a lot of sense for the Ducks to go out and acquire him and if you're the Rangers I think Drury is just opening up cap space to see what he can do. Do you think that there's going to be a lot of trades and movement given that the free agent class is what would be termed slightly weaker than other years? Yeah I think we're going to see more of that as the cap continues to rise. Teams whether it be freeing up space or not getting to the cap.

As it continues to rise there's only so many teams that will be able to get to the top. But also, I think teams and fans and media, we're all talking about, well, look at next year, look who's going to be available. As we all know, those guys are not all going to be available. There will be, if we're looking at the top 10 2026 UFAs, there might be four of them, maybe three, that are going to maybe get to July 1. Most of them will be re-signed with their current teams or get signed and traded or what have you. I think teams have some cap space and flexibility for the first time in a long time.

I'm not sure they want to start spending it so quickly and lose the flexibility that they've now just achieved Yeah, it's interesting where you know, there's certain teams that also Just don't feel like they can they can get the big guys, right? And and maybe Anaheim's in that position where you know If you're gonna if you're gonna spend the money or if you want an impact player you have to trade for them or the Rangers Clearly feel like they can they can splash money around and players are gonna want to go there but you bring up a good point about like not only the the ceiling going up like the floor goes up too you got to spend money like all these teams you got to spend a

certain amount of money and there's there's gonna be teams just there this I think it's gonna be great for a certain amount of players Who are gonna get overpaid to go to certain teams? But you got a foot, you know, not everyone can go to Florida Not everyone can play for Tampa or the Rangers or an original 16 got to fill out 32 rosters Yeah early early on in the cap, you know, we saw players going to different Organizations and teams to kind of fill in to get to the floor, if you will. And I think as the cap is now rising again, I think you'll see the same where teams have to overpay some players that they think are good fits for the chemistry of their team or for their young players just... just to get to that floor others not a lot of contracts like mine and

also and that's a blasted pick up the it that that work where did you have your career on paper i was arizona but nice i got a t-shirt on a deal the head of the panel on the line michael's uh... maybe you'd tell me they were they were almost a maroon. What was that ugly color

that they had? What kind of red was that? Yeah, they did have that kind of going. It was not quite a maroon. They went to like that with a white logo almost. Well, no, but they had the maroon jerseys with that weird, I don't know, that wolf head. The coyote or whatever it was. Yeah, I guess kind of the but the kind of the headline purple and it look like it was missing and i a m like it was a coyote yes literally a coyote

role that the of all that but you've got the books back out but that picture she uh...

here's the thing though i was right trying wolf had uh... has those old out here's the thing no problems you even admit that ugly maroon color you say i had that guys like their role i'm not going to her her all that where are you there are no absolutely uh... i prox next time we get you on man we gotta wear the jacket

you gotta bring the jacket out I am gonna make sure it's in the back of my desk chair here just in just in perchance that we have a meeting there it is beauty yeah there it is the opposite yeah no there's the other one where they were maroon and it looked like there was there was purple involved. It was like a weird. That was the original like Shane Doan, Kachuk, Eddie Olchuk type look. Yeah, that. Briskalov.

Yes. Yes. Old school. Old school. All right, Bronx, enjoy game four tomorrow night. All right, guys. All right. Have fun. You got it. There he is, Chris Prong guys. All right. Have fun. You got it. There is Chris Pronger You bet joining us here on the Maple Toyota hotline Pop icons. Let's celebrate diversity and love. And hits from 2SLGBTQ Plus Canadian artists. Be yourself and stand proud. It's your soundtrack for Pride and Beyond. Just ask your smart speaker to play iHeartPride Canada. Stream us on your phone or listen now at iHeartRadio.ca.

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