The Sheet with Jeff Marek - On the Sheet: Chris Pronger on Leadership, Team Building & His New Book Earned

Episode Date: April 3, 2026

Chris Pronger joins Jeff Marek for a wide-ranging conversation about his upcoming book Earned and the lessons he’s learned from a Hall of Fame career in the NHL. Pronger reflects on the mindset behind success, what it truly means to “earn” your place in professional sports, and the sacrifices players must make to reach the highest level. The former Stanley Cup champion also shares stories from his playing days — including memories of the 2007 Anaheim Ducks and teammates like Teemu Selanne — while breaking down leadership, locker room culture, and what separates championship teams from the rest. Pronger also discusses his growing interest in working in an NHL front office, how teams approach building contenders in the salary cap era, and what he looks for when evaluating how organizations are constructed across the league.SHOUTOUT TO OUR SPONSORS!!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼 Ninja: https://www.sharkninja.ca/ninja-crispi-pro-6-in-1-countertop-glass-air-fryer-rose-quartz/AS101CRS.html?utm_source=Meta&utm_medium=Paid+Social&utm_campaign=H1NinjaCrispi&utm_content=NinjaEN&dwvar_AS101CRS_color=cdb9b8Reach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@FNBarnBurner🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoffReach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the meantime, let's get right to our first guest, who is a very busy and important man and has taken a few moments here out of his busy day to talk to us today on the sheet. He is, of course, Chris Pronger, and he joins me now. Chris, all right today, bud. I'm great. From my car here in L.A. That's lovely. And I saw last night, by the way, we can fire the tweet up and show some of the pictures as well. Big dinner at Timo's place, Sons Salani.

Where was Timu? Tamu was en route from Finland back to Southern California. so he couldn't join us. What was he? I'm always curious. He's one of my, he was always one of my favorite people to talk to, still is,

funny guy, supremely talented, as we all know. What was he like as a teammate? And do you have a thought on that, that boozy crew of his that followed you guys around in 2007 en route to your Stanley Cup,

a bunch of drunks following the ducks around, all the Tammu's buddies? Yeah, they, they were awesome. They were fun to be around. I can tell you that. But, you know, I think just, you know,

great friends of his, following him around on his journey. And, you know, they were in SoCal here for probably two months, sounding up and drinking beer in his sauna and doing all the rest of that. But they were a lot of fun to be around. And apparently they were good luck charms.

Well, I mean, you guys want to stay on the cup with them in tow. Correct. No denying that they were good luck charms for you guys. What was Tama like as a teammate, too? Like, it sounds like, and again, I always, like Chris Al Bianz,

whenever I hear like, oh, he's a good guy in the room. I always hear in the back of my head, yeah, that's great, but they don't flood the room. But Tameau would seem to be both, like the guy that was awesome on the ice and the awesome guy in the room too.

Yeah, a Hall of Famer on the ice and a Hall of Famer off the ice. He was the best. Like just, I used to wait every day before we went out for games, you know, right before the period started or right before the game started, he would come both,

On the three-minute mark of on the clock before we went out, he'd be like, boys, we got to play with passion. And just, you know, you don't think of that as somebody who scored seven. We just lost Chris. We'll get him back here in a couple of seconds. Interesting conversation about Tammu Salani as well. We can all remember the rookie season and the goals and setting the record and him throwing the glove up in the air, caught by Dallas Aiken.

We're getting prongs back here in a couple of seconds, getting him set up back on on his video in southern California. But one of my favorite people to talk to, one of my favorite people to talk about, like he was one of from that generation, whether it was how he, you know, paired up with Paul Korea for all those years, even going to Colorado. He's one of my favorite people to talk to.

But anyway, you're talking about the Hall of Fame are talking about passion before games, Chris, before technology. Yeah, sorry about that. No problem. Yes, exactly. It is 2026. No, he just, I used to just love

when he would say, we got to play with passion and just, you think about Tamus Lanny and the number of goals he scored, the type of player he was, you don't think about passion and physicality and things like that, but just he played the game hard, he played the game at the highest level, and just what a talent, the finish flash. I remember one time when I was playing in,

I think I was in Edmonton, when he had just come back and he had signed with Anaheim the year before I got here, and he had the knee issues and the knee problems and I remember him I was at the blue line he was at the red line and I was taking the rush and all of a sudden I got to the top of the circle

I'm like oh my God he's already on top of me and just remembering like the flash is back like this he does not have a bad knee anymore he's got his burst back and just how he drove that backpost and I don't think people realize how hard he actually played

he played you know on the edge a little bit obviously goal-scoring, talented player, but he played hard and with a lot of passion, as he says. Yes, yes. I don't know how they say passion in finish, but nonetheless he still... The thing that always stood out to me from TAMU is, like I would see, and I think we've all seen,

and you were right there to watch a lot of them, he would take what I would always refer to as the perfect shot, and it wasn't always hard. Like he just took like the shot that the goalie... He would shoot from unexpected places off, unexpected feet, etc. et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, and they didn't have to be hard. Like, his shot selection.

Like, when he released it was perfect, Chris. He had an absolute muffin. And we used to bug him all the time. But he found a way. He found the hole. He found that little sliver of opening that he could get it into. And he was able to incredibly accurate. Yeah.

But, I mean, I used to watch him and jiggy in practice. And jiggy just gave it to him. him about his muffin shot and all the rest of it. But hey, you don't get 700 by being a crappy goal score. No, 100%. Listen, and I'm sure there's plenty of stories about Tameau and the Anaheimdux, and I wrote the forward for your book earned as well. And I want to get a couple of thoughts on that.

That's coming out on the 14th of April. And, you know, I look at this, like, I look at your career, and I look at the things that you've spoken about and the title of your book being earned and how you've talked about that before. And there's a video that reminded me of it. And it's from from years ago on driveline, which is a baseball training facility in sight. It's kind of really grown and kind of actually in a lot of ways changed MLB, but nonetheless. And there's a video by guy named Casey Weathers. Casey Weathers was a pitcher drafted by Colorado. I think he's like sixth overall.

But he was the all-in guy. Like you talk about earning things, Chris. And like Casey Weathers was a guy that were everything revolved around making it to MLB, every meal, every nap, every workout, every throwing, such, like all of it. Like he was that guy, right? Earning everything. You know the old saying there's no elevator success. You take the stairs. That was Casey Weathers.

And he never ultimately made it. But his point through all of it was a really good one. He said, hard work doesn't guarantee you anything except that. the answer to one question. And that is, how good am I? And the majority of people will never get an honest answer because they never applied themselves like that. They never applied themselves to the point where they,

to the point of the title of your book, they never earned it because they never maximized who they could be. But he did. And he said, I got the answer because I know that I gave everything. And the question is, how good am I? Not everyone's going to play defense like Chris Pronger, right? But like people will still get their answer of how good am I if they apply themselves 100%. Does that resonate with you?

Yeah. Absolutely. You know, I think early in my career, I figured out how good, how great do you want to be? How good do you want to be? How great do you want to be? And then, okay, you want to be great. How dedicated are you? What are you willing to sacrifice?

How hard are you willing to work? How much failure you willing to push through? You start answering all these questions. and the answer comes to you pretty quickly to your point about Casey. And I think that's really what people say a lot of things, but are they willing to take action and go out and execute on those questions or sayings or what have you? And I think a lot of my book is about challenging people to answer those questions through a lot of the lessons that I learned throughout the course of my life.

Who are the ones, like who are the NHLs that you would look at and say like, That guy earned every single inch of ice he got. That guy earned every goal. That guy earned every save. That guy earned every win. That guy earned every cup, etc. Are there some of those players that come to mind? Well, you look at what players are willing to go through.

I remember, you know, everybody's heard the story of Steve Eisenman at the 2002 Olympics and how much you wanted to be there, how much he wanted to win a gold medal, and what he was willing to go through to the painstaking efforts to make sure that he could play in the midst of that year. then to go on and win a Stanley Cup in the same year is remarkable. You know, he was going into do therapy and treatment and all the rest of that, five, six hours before games just so that he could get onto the ice and help us try to win a gold medal. And when you see leadership like that, when you see somebody that dedicated and willing to go through all of that

to help a team, you can't help but want to be a part of that and help galvanize your team to come together. and you see that and you have a belief that we are willing to do literally anything to win this gold medal. And ultimately that helps build the chemistry in the room. It helps bring us all together. And guys are much more willing to do what's asked to them, whatever role that is,

when you have people like that in your locker room. You know, what's into what that too is, a lot of guys will say, and they'll do it. Like, they'll put in the work. But as far as like achieving a goal, they'll still only want to do it on their terms.

I really, I'll work hard. I'll every single day, all of it, but I'm only going to do things that I want to do. I'll be great at it, but I'm not willing to change to make a goal. And I always look at that and say, well, that's great. Everyone in the NHL wants to win the Stanley Cup,

but so many guys say it, and the majority of them, what they mean is I'll do anything as long as it's on my terms, because I don't want to change. Yeah. Yeah, and that's it. We have to be always willing to evolve and adapt and change through our experiences.

You know, you get battle tested every playoffs. You get checked every playoffs under the guise of how good do you want to be. Are you willing to come together? How are we going to play? What are you willing to sacrifice? And you see the teams that are willing to. They're dive and face first in front of shots to block shots. They're doing whatever it takes.

They're taking the cream against the boards. get it out at the blue line, all the rest of that stuff. And it's very cliche to say, but when you see your teammates willing to do that, how are you not? And why would you not want to do that? And to galvanize the team and bring you together at a much more team-friendly way in which we're trying to win and trying to battle through adversity. And at every moment, there can be a momentum shift.

there can be something that happens that changes the course of a game or a series. And what we're willing to do and what we're willing to sacrifice, oftentimes can change that. To your career specifically, was there a moment like that with your 2007 ducks? I remember asking Scott Niedermeyer, what was the moment that put things over the top for Anaheim? And he said when we brought in Brad May, that changed a lot of the Anaheim ducks. Do you have an answer to that one? Like was there that one moment that something happened, someone did something that took the Anaheim Ducks to a different level?

I think there's a couple. That's certainly one of them. And I'll back it up a bit. We went through some adversity in the middle of the season. We got off that great start. And then I got hurt. Scotty got hurt. We went into a little bit of a lull.

We got away from our game. And then we found, we found our identity. We made the Bradmay trade. There was a lot of big names on the market. I think they kicked tires on a lot of them. And ultimately, I think with Berkey making that lone move, that depth move, and said, this is my team, I'm trusting these guys, and I'm going to add a little bit of depth.

You know, obviously May Day, long-storied career was a huge part of our success and our identity. You know, we played a rough and tumble game, a physical game, and he added to that. But he could do a lot more things. You know, he could kill penalties. He could provide a spark when needed. his role and played his role to a T. And I think bringing guys into that locker room that knew their roles as good as Brad did, I think only added to our depth,

but also our mindset going into the playoffs. I want to transition this to sort of other careers outside of hockey. Like you've done something really interesting here. And your name, like, after you retired, like around hockey broadcast circles, the conversation revolved around, oh, man, if only Pronger would do TV full time. man, he would be awesome. He would kill it. The NHL, like, broadcasts need, like, a superstar to be on there.

Like, kind of like how, you know, the TNT show does, right? With Jack and Barclay, it's like, yeah, if we had someone like that for hockey and the writing and the media appearances and the interest in working in NHL front offices. I want to drill down on a couple of things here, but just sort of as a generality. What were you able to take from your playing career that helped turn? Chris Pronger hockey player into Chris Pronger television, digital, book writer, and NHL or team executive. What were the things that you took from your playing career into that?

I think the willingness to do the work and make sure I was prepared as possible every step of the way, whether that was working in the Department of Player of Safety, understanding and knowing the nuanced all the rules and all the precedents. to working in the front office with Dale Tallinn in Florida, understanding, you know, from pro scouting to amateur scouting to development to contracts, to team building, to then, you know, kind of going off and now doing, you know, broadcasting and talking on the TV and imparting some wisdom as to what I see on a night-to-night basis in the National Hockey League. And I think I like being able to showcase the nuance that I see, whether it be from a defensive

standpoint or an offensive standpoint, and why and how goals happen or why and how goals didn't go in, how players are defending, who's at the top of their game, who's struggling, why are they struggling, what can they change, what do I see that maybe somebody else doesn't. And so being able to kind of boil that down and put it into layman's term and get kind of get rid of hockey speak, if you will, and you know, we always hear, we always hear details and all the rest of this stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. What are the details? You know, the fan at home wants to know what exactly that means.

What are the details? Okay, getting it in and out at the blue lines and taking a hit to make a play and all these cliches we hear. What exactly, how do these teams get away from that? How do they, why are they not doing that? Because those are simple things, like, why does it, why do some teams create more off the rush than others? You know, why are teams dumping it all the time? You know, all the different metrics and things that we can track. You know, why are some teams doing it?

Are they playing to the abilities of their team? And is that why they're doing it? Or is that just the way the coach likes to play? You know, all these different things you can kind of walk through and showcase. Is it pretty obvious to you, because listen, you have a really good brain for the game, obviously. Is it obvious to you when you look at a team and you look at how they're constructed? Is it easy for you to look at it and say, this is a general manager and coach that are in sync? or is this a general manager and head coach that are on completely separate pages?

This guy, this manager is giving this coach nothing to what he needs to coach. Can you see that? Yeah, I think you can see it a little bit. I think it's more, and also is the coach willing to adapt and adjust a little bit to the players that he has and playing to the identity and skill set that those players have? oftentimes, you know, we're talking 80s and 90s, it was the players need to conform to the coach. And, you know, oftentimes they just move players. Now, you know, it's hard to move players and there's a lot of things that go into that.

It's easier to fire the coach. And now the coaches know that. So when you're hiring your coach, the general manager and ownership all the way down need to understand how do you want to play the game? You know, how do you want to set up your team? How do you want to play the game? And then you have to find a coach that A can coach that, but can, also teach the league is much younger, teach these kids how to play either in that structure, but then help them develop and grow into the types of players that management, ownership,

fans think those players can be. And how do we continue to evolve and develop our core group and then those around them to keep implementing in the salary cap eras, that that's what makes or breaks the team is how you develop those players. Are there different styles of managers for different teams. And the two examples now, like Toronto's looking for a general manager. Nashville is looking for a general manager. Do you look at those two marketplaces and say, there are some managers that'll fit in Toronto that won't in Nashville,

and there are some managers that'll fit in Nashville that won't fit in Toronto. Is there that much of a discrepancy? Or does the same skill set translate to both? I don't want to offend my Nashville, but a smaller market in Nashville versus you know, we all know what the circus is like in Toronto, the major market of Toronto. Like, this would be blunt. Let's be blunt here.

Yes. I think it's a yes and no. It really just depends on, if we're talking Nashville, what does the owner envision for their team? And then you have to build out accordingly. You know, whether it's a present hockey operations, whether it's a general manager,

and then okay, then it's the, the coach. How do you want the team to play? What do the players look like? What do we have in the pipeline? All that good stuff. And then from a Toronto perspective, it's, you know, obviously a lot more scrutiny, notoriety, conversations with media. You know, you probably've got five people in Nashville and you got 50 to 100 in Toronto. Are you, you know, are you able to communicate a message? Are you able to walk people through in a way that they're going to understand it so that they realize, okay, there's a plan, there's an understanding. of how we're going to go execute on that,

you're not going to go into the media and walk through your plan and tell people this is what I'm going to do. Like that's assonine. No team is going to do that. I don't care if you're in Toronto, Montreal, you know, if we look at Montreal, they went through a rebuild,

they're now coming out of the rebuild, and now they've, you know, playoffs last year, playoffs this year, now you can see they're past the rebuild, and now they're on the upswing of where are these players going to be in another year,

after this year. They've got some young talent coming into the pipeline again. What does that look like? And then you look at Toronto, they're not in that. Are they retooling? Are they rebuilding? I think somebody has to go in and just have a plan. But they're not going to tell the fan base.

They're going to tell ownership, this is my plan. But they're not going to tell the fans. They just need to explain on the periphery. These are the options and things that we might do. But you can't manage a team in the media. I don't know anybody that's done that. Having said that, communicating with the people that have the nerve to buy tickets is a pretty important thing. Correct.

For any organization. So here's the question then. How do you walk that line? Like, sure, you want to be transparent, but at the same time, like, you're not, because when you're brought, when you're telling fans what you're going to do, you're also telling 31 other teams what you're going to do with the exact same time. How do you walk that line? And that's the, like, that's a trick. You want to, like, have a communication with your fans, yet at the same time,

there's trade secrets. Yeah, you have to thread the needle. I think it's, you're presenting an ideology at first of, this is how I want to build a team. You know, I think we talk in general terms. This is how I want to build a team. If you're the, the general manager, this is how I want to build a team. These are the, you know, everybody's going,

by the way, everybody, going for the same players. We want being strong, fasts, highly skilled, on and on and on. And it's about going and finding those. I mean, it's not a secret. But it's finding those diamonds in the rough. Where do you get them? Especially if you're Toronto and your team that doesn't have a lot of draft capital, you're going to have to go find college free agents. You're going to have to go find other free agents in the marketplace, restricted, unrestricted, unrestricted, on and on and on. And then make some smart trades to find guys that fit how you want to build your team all the managing expectations of the current players of,

I talked about this yesterday, like, how do you, you have to find out what Austin Matthews wants to do. He's the linchpin in all this with respect. He's got two years left. You can't get stuck in the same position they were in with Mitch Marner. Right. If you do that, the game's over. So you have to find out what he wants to do and then go and execute around that.

But I would imagine whoever, comes in, we'll have a quick conversation to find that out and then walk. You're not going to tell them exactly what you're going to do, but you have to explain to the player, these are the moves that I expect to make because I can tell you a couple times during my career where our general manager in St. Louis did not tell an unrestricted free agent what his plans were and that goaltender went elsewhere and beat us and won a Stanley Cup. And you, you're going to the you can do put two and two together on that one. Yeah.

Let me ask you about your, your personal career here too, and ambitions. Like, I hear you start to talk about managing teams here. And then there's like that prong or spark, right? Like, I've watched you going back.

I've watched you going back to like the call itans, like I've seen, I remember I was telling the story. I was in kitchen or two weeks, but I remember watching you play with the Peterborough beats as a university. And you're like just like destroying Rangers guys. And I'm like, what is this?

What is this? What is this? What is this defenseman here? It crushing the kitchen arrangers. But like, I hear you talking about managing and there's like that all of a sudden, like, your voice goes up a little bit. And there's that, there's that excitement in your voice again. That sounds pretty attractive to you, true or false? I think team building.

I think building anything is attractive. You know, I've always enjoyed doing that and putting the pieces together, you know, the 50,000 foot view of trying to make the pieces. match and then watching them kind of grow and develop and evolve into what you can see, you know, two or three years down the line. And then it comes to fruition. You're like, oh, wow, it worked. And constantly just challenging yourself. I think at the end of the day, I just like to challenge myself to do new things, to write a book, to public speaking. I never thought I'd ever do public speaking. That certainly wasn't on my big-go card, but I wanted to challenge myself. I'm contrary to popular

belief, I'm interested. Hang on. I don't, no. I don't like talking. No. Stop. I remember when you were, I remember talking to you when you were a kid playing with Peterborough. You're always a great, like you've always been a go-to for everybody. Like everyone from like Brofee

at the hockey news to me to like to everybody for years Chris. No one's buying that. No one's buying that. That's talking hockey. That's easy. I can talk hockey all day long. That's easy. It's the other stuff. The personal stuff and the other stuff.

But, you know, but being in a room, it's just me and you talking on this call. And it's maybe some other people are watching, but I don't know that. But, you know, talking to a reporter is easy. It's when you're in a big group and you're, you know, you're throwing yourself out there. And you're talking about things that are personal. And you're trying to make an impact on those people that are paying attention and listening to you talk and giving them something tangible to, to take home that they can affect change in their own lives.

That's what I enjoy. And I see people that, to your point, you get that glimmer in their eye and you see that shoulders kind of pick up and their head pick up and they're walking around with a little more confidence thinking, wow, I can implement this in my life. And things are going to change. Now, they might not change overnight. And that goes back to your question, you know, where you're looking at it going, okay, you have to work.

You know, you go back to Casey's stuff. you have to work, it might take a year, it might take two years, it might take three years, it might take four, it might take five. You have to be willing to put in the work and trust the process and have conviction in what you're doing is the right thing and what you're doing is going to work. Because it doesn't always just fall into place and magically appear and happen. It's a process and you have to trust it that you're doing things in the right manner in a meticulous manner. and it's part of the plan. Now, the plan always, there's always iteration and change to it.

It's always evolving. Players in, players out, you know, availability, et cetera. But, you know, salary cap issues and all the rest of that. But, you know, building something has always been interesting to me. You know, there's an old, I can't remember who said it. It's an old military saying, plans are meaningless, but planning is everything. plans are meaningless but planning is everything does that hit a spot with you does that make sense absolutely ever evolving yeah you need to plan you plan for everything you plan for success you plan for

failure you plan for everything and what are you going to do and then as it happens you're reevaluating and and constantly changing and evolving and adapting the plan but you have a plan and then it changes and you adapt to what happens in real time and you're looking at everything. You know, if we're talking about hockey, you're looking at scouting in the eye test and then you're looking at analytics and data and all the rest of the web and all these different things

and you're taking in all this information so that you can then utilize it and make the best decisions possible for the team not only at that point in time but then in subsequent years. Makes sense. Okay. Last one for you. Give me the elevator pitch for earned. It is a playbook of sorts. You know, it's part memoir, part life lessons gleamed from, you know, my youth hockey days, my NHL career, and then post-playing days and kind of walk people through how to level up, how to create standards, how to be difference makers in their life, and then to go take action and execute. And, you know, I think set the bar high, challenge yourself, trust the process, but all. Also, make sure that you own every decision.

And throughout the course of the book, I own every good decision and every bad decision. And there's plenty of those in there. Yes. Even Edmonton. It's in the book. You'll figure it out once you read it. But, you know, and own every one of those decisions. Nobody bats a thousand.

I can tell you that. We all make mistakes. And it's up to us to not only own them, but then, you know, make them right in some situations and in others, just own it and move on and learn from it. Earned, it comes out April the 14th, encourage everyone to pick this one up. Chris, been in the light as always.

Thanks so much for this. Enjoy the rest of your day, your week, and we will catch up soon. Thanks so much for sharing some experiences with me today. Really appreciate it. You got. Thanks, too. There he is.

Chris Pronger.