This is part two of our three-part series of a conversation with former Columbus Blue Jacket and NHL journeyman Sean Pronger that will run during the Olympic break.
Sean Pronger finished his four-year college career at Bowling Green State University with the 1993-1994 season. He had been drafted by the Vancouver Canucks during his freshman year, going 51st overall in the 1991 NHL Entry Draft. He was now at a crossroads.
"It was the summer of '94. We had put a request into Vancouver that they either sign me or release me within a certain time period. Basically, what I wanted to know was if they didn't want to move forward with this, let me go and I can catch on with another team before the market got flooded with other players."
"I wanted to get an early chance to shop my services around. What happened is that Vancouver thought that with the 1994 lockout looming, they didn't feel that I had a 75 percent chance of making their NHL team in the next three years. Whatever the reason for their decision was, that was the math that they used to figure out if they wanted to sign guys or to sign me. So, they gave me my release and I was a free agent."
It was time for Pronger to try and find a team for which to play. With the 1994 lockout looming, it was a scramble, as other players were in the same situation in trying to find a team to latch on with.
"I almost had a contract in place with Detroit (their AHL-affiliate Adirondack Red Wings). The deal was kind of agreed to and before I could sign it, Detroit fired their GM. (Former Blue Jackets GM) Doug MacLean was the GM at the time. Obviously, I never signed with Detroit. So, I was still a free agent."
"I had very limited choices because the lockout was happening and no one was going to NHL camps. Really, the only opportunity that I had was to go to training camp in Las Vegas. So, in the fall of 1994 I found myself in Las Vegas. I was there for the entire training camp, even with the lockout happening and five NHL guys showed up. When you're looking at the board and trying to figure out where you slot in, it was pretty crowded."
"But, no one was telling me anything, so I kept showing up every day and was still playing well. At that point, the writing was literally on the wall and there was nothing I could do. By not letting me go, I still had to keep showing up. And finally, on the last day of camp, they put me out of my misery. But by then, every other camp was shut down. So, I had nowhere else to go."
His dream of playing in the NHL was still alive, although he was facing an uphill battle with the lockout and a glut of players on the market that were vying for a roster spot with any team. His perseverance saw him never quit on his dream.
"At this point, I had two choices. I could go to England to play, as my old midget coach was coaching in England and offered me a spot if I wanted to go over there. Or, I could go to Las Vegas' ECHL team (Knoxville Cherokees) in Knoxville, Tennessee. So, that's how I ended up in Knoxville. I wasn't ready to cut ties with North America yet. At that point, rarely do you go overseas and then come back."
"While in Knoxville, I played well. Jack Ferreira, the GM of Anaheim (Mighty Ducks), just by chance happened to be at my first game in the East Coast League. He saw me play and once the lockout ended, they signed me. So that's how I got to Anaheim (signed in February, 1995). My path to the NHL was not a straight line, much like most of my career."
His career in the NHL was finally off the ground. In his second year with Anaheim, he played in the club's first post-season appearance (1996-1997). He would be traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins the following year and played in both the regular season and playoffs with them. In November 1998, he was traded to the New York Rangers before being traded to the Los Angeles Kings in February 1999. In August 1999, Pronger signed as a free agent with the Boston Bruins and was then traded to the New York Islanders in December 2000. This is where the Columbus Blue Jackets entered the picture.
"How I got to Columbus was funny, in that the connection was Bob Strumm (former head scout for the Blue Jackets), who was the general manager in Las Vegas when I first started in 1994. Fast forward to 2001 and I was owned by the New York Islanders and my agent said let's get a jump on the free agent market."
"The Islanders released me, but to do that, they had to put me on waivers. That's when Columbus picked me up, because of Bob Strumm. And Doug MacLean was the GM in Columbus at that time. Talk about 'full circle.' It's a small world."
He played for Columbus in the 2001-02 and the 2002-03 seasons. These were lean years for the very youthful franchise. They finished 5th in the Central Division and 15th in the Western Conference. What was it like to play on that team at that time?
"The first year I was there, I was up and down seven times. That's a lot. So, for my first year there, which was their second year (in the NHL), the message for the team was 'stick with it guys. We're new and we're all in this together.' We were kind of cast-offs from other teams."
"My second year, I was there for the whole season. That was kind of a frustrating year. If you look at our home record (20-14-5-2), we were pretty good. But we were like 9-30 on the road (actually 9-28-3-1). We were good at home but just horrific on the road. It was frustrating in that we could compete with a lot of these teams at home, but why couldn't we do it on the road?"
"We used to make the joke that a whiteboard should be rolled into the visitor's locker room, because every time that we beat somebody, they would have a 'players only' meeting. They were like 'how did we lose to Columbus?'
"What's funny is that Todd Richards (Blue Jackets head coach) was a defenseman in Las Vegas when I was trying-out there and I was golfing with Scott Arniel (former Blue Jackets head coach) when I found out that I was picked up off waivers by Columbus."
The hockey world is a small world, indeed. This now brings us full-circle back to the Vancouver Canucks, the team that initially drafted him in 1991. He was traded by the Blue Jackets to the Canucks in Oct. 2003.
"I'm glad this happened because I finally got to 'close the loop' on it. I knew my time was winding down in the NHL. I was planning on going to Europe at some point, and this felt like it was going to be my last year. I was glad that I was able to finish where I started. I got to play at least a couple of games for the organization that drafted me 13 years prior."
The final installment of our conversation with former Blue Jacket Sean Pronger will run on Friday.
