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Review: Pronger’s pre-released Oilers contract drama prime driver of uncharacteristically dry book
Photo credit: Lou Capozzola — USA Today Network/Imagn Images
Apr 15, 2026, 20:00 EDTUpdated: Apr 15, 2026, 20:05 EDT
If you were hoping to read Chris Pronger’s true thoughts about his time in Edmonton in his new book, what really happened during his one season as an Edmonton Oiler, you’ll be disappointed.
That’s been published already by The Athletic. He’s already talked about it during his many podcast appearances.
Pronger’s book Earned: The True Cost of Greatness From One of Hockey’s Fiercest Competitors was released on Tuesday. But curiously, just a day before its release, he published an excerpt from it in The Athletic, saying he was intoxicated when he agreed to a five-year contract with the Oilers.
It was great marketing, a juicy tease to drive sales. Pronger scooped his own book, and there isn’t any more juice about the most public and acrimonious situation of his career, although he’s had a few.
For a figure who played larger than life at his hulking six-foot-six, 220 lb frame, who was a menace on the ice and undoubtedly a tremendous hockey player, the book is remarkably slight.
At roughly 170 pages — for reference, a much lighter read like Certified Beauties by James Duthie, published recently, is nearly double the size — there are just a handful of hockey stories. It’s not to size-shame. Lord knows writing a book is difficult, but whole segments of his career are skipped over, or touched on briefly, but not explored.
It’s not an autobiography or a tell-all. As Pronger himself has stated in promoting the book, Earned is “part memoir, part life lessons.”
He delivers on the lessons. The anecdotes and stages of his career, from choosing to go to Peterborough in the OHL over college hockey, the struggles adjusting to being a professional in Hartford, and the myriad of challenging injuries he dealt with, are springboards to discuss his “standards.”
After visiting with a sports psychologist in the mid-1990s, he developed those standards, and transformed his career from a bust and whipping boy in St. Louis to a Hart Trophy winner and later a Stanley Cup champion and Olympic gold medallist.
His formula of Standards + Adversity + Ownership = Success translates from sports to business.
There is value in that. The lessons in the book are good lessons.
But the book also feels like a summary of his highlights one could gather from Wikipedia, put in a blender with a Jim Rohn catalogue, with passages that seem AI assisted, and sis-boom-bah, here you go.
It took me 90 minutes to read, and afterwards I thought, “Wow, that’s it?”
June 14, 2006; Raleigh, NC, USA; Edmonton Oilers defensemen (44) Chris Pronger is congratulated by teammates after scoring the 1st goal of the game during the 1st period in game 5 of the NHL Stanley Cup Finals at the RBC Center. Mandatory Credit: James Guillory – USA TODAY Sports/Imagn Images
Pronger has always given the air of someone who’s going to say what he thinks, and if you don’t like it, that’s your problem. He’s got the resume and accomplishments to back up any opinion, especially about the modern game. At his worst, though, he seems pompous, never afraid to talk about himself, laughing at his own jokes before they’re finished.
All in all, these traits make him a great media personality, and his appearances on Hockey Night in Canada add flavour to a stale, once-proud broadcast.
This personality doesn’t come through in the book whatsoever. There were the things Pronger wanted to talk about, and other things he just didn’t care to.
Which takes us to the Edmonton anecdote, which he says is “the full story.” Nearing the 20th anniversary of the legendary Stanley Cup run, the highlight for a generation of suffering Oilers fans, the turning point that led to a Decade of Darkness — this explanation will feel wholly insufficient.
The whole thing seems off.
Pronger says he found out at a friend’s birthday about the trade to Edmonton while he already had a buzz going. He was surprised since Edmonton didn’t appear to be in the mix. When heading home, Pronger and his wife stopped at a bookstore to look for a book about Edmonton.
“Why would anyone want to go there?” the clerk allegedly replied.
His wife, Lauren, was taken aback by the news of heading north. But once they got home, they talked it over and agreed to try Edmonton out for a season and go from there, the book says.
But Chris didn’t listen. His agent calls again and begins negotiating the five-year extension that was finalized at 2 a.m., while “several more beers deep.” His agent does not advise him to at least sleep on the extension decision, letting his client agree rather quickly.
Pronger not talking to his wife before the extension is then the impetus for his knowing by November he wanted out, not that she didn’t like Canada or Edmonton per se, and why his bags and rental house were packed up before Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final finished.
At the very least, the way the story is presented seems glossed over and streamlined. A cultivated yarn put together over the years that might not be untrue, but omits details.
On the Ice Guardians podcast last week, Pronger then added more colour, saying his agent caught him at a “weak moment.” He could feel his knees aching and his hands were sore while negotiating the contract intoxicated, and he was worried he might not get a long-term contract if his injuries continued.
Everyone in Edmonton is aware of certain rumours about why Pronger and his wife weren’t working in the city. The thing is, this explanation doesn’t quell these rumours. There is no talk about the city itself, or what happened during the season.
May 22, 2007; Anaheim CA, USA; Anaheim Ducks defenseman Chris Pronger (25) addresses the media after the Ducks defeated the Red Wings 4-3 and advance to the Stanley Cup Finals in game six of the 2007 NHL Western Conference Finals at the Honda Center in Anaheim CA. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
‘Sold a bill of goods’
Pronger said on a Spittin’ Chiclets interview five years ago (more engaging than the book, I’d argue) multiple times that he was “sold a bill of goods” by the Oilers.
“Just a number of factors,” he replied to Paul Bissonnette after being asked why he wanted to leave Edmonton. “Family…I got sold a certain bill of goods that wasn’t accurate, and it just wasn’t working out.”
What bill of goods? Five years later, in his chance to set the record straight in his own book, Pronger doesn’t allude to any promises Edmonton made that they didn’t keep. This admission didn’t sit right with the only Oiler mentioned in the book, then general manager Kevin Lowe.
Once Pronger’s version of events went public, Lowe responded on LinkedIn on Tuesday, saying how disappointed he was to read it. He credited Pronger for taking responsibility for making a decision in the middle of the night that affected his family, but vociferously stood up for Edmonton.
“Where I take issue is how casually Edmonton is folded into that story as though it were merely an inconvenience tied to what he now describes as a ‘drunken decision’,” Lowe wrote.
“Looking back, hearing how he frames it today, I find myself wishing I had handled it differently… Quite frankly, I wish I had said no and let him sit out rather than accommodate a decision he now seems so quick to diminish.”
In fairness to Pronger, he talks about getting sober at the end of the book, admitting that after his career ended due to a brutal concussion, he leaned on alcohol while searching for an identity. He does take ownership, which is the first of his 15 Standards for a Pro Mindset.
Chris Pronger of the Edmonton Oilers stands in front of the net with goalie Jussi Markkanen as Ray Whitney of the Carolina Hurricanes closes in during game six of the 2006 NHL Stanley Cup Finals on June 17, 2006 at Rexall Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Postmedia photo.
‘…Prepared for the backlash, but not the slander.’
An earlier chapter called “Standards and Adversity” is the only other time in the book Pronger talks about Edmonton, where he prefaced the Oilers extension as one of the “biggest negotiation f—ups of his career.”
Although he’s talked about the run in other podcast appearances, like Ask Dubey last week, Pronger indulges in little reminiscing about the season, the four playoff series, nor one mention of a teammate.
“Midway through my first year, I told my agent I would need to be traded at the end of the first season. The months that followed tested every standard I had. I played knowing I’d be leaving. Kept my mouth shut. Gave maximum effort every night and day. Helped to lead the team to the Stanley Cup Finals,” wrote Pronger.
That jumps straight to Game 7 of the Final against Carolina, where he says his foot was broken, his back was wrecked, his elbow was throbbing, and “floating bone chips made skating feel like grinding metal on metal.” Those injuries would linger for months as he would be dealt to Anaheim two weeks after the final game.
After flying home from Raleigh, he went home to an already packed-up house, most of it rental furniture. His wife was already back in St. Louis when the trade rumours leaked.
Lowe had told me at an event in Bonnyville in late February that Pronger’s agent reaffirmed Pronger’s trade request an hour after Game 7 ended. The stage was set for the trade, despite the Oilers’ hopes they could work something out.
“Even though I’d known I’d be leaving, I’d played to win, just like I always did. But not everybody saw it like that. Some fans made up lies … [sic] they loved me at first, but then they loved to hate me because they felt like I’d rejected them, essentially. I was prepared for the backlash, but not the slander,” Pronger wrote.
Look, there’s no doubt in my mind that if the Oilers won Game 7, Pronger would’ve won the Conn Smythe. He was an excellent, tough, and a true game-changing defenceman. Few in the game today have the physical tools and mental drive to play like him.
That’s what made the trade the more gut-wrenching for fans. That’s why this story lives on. For what it’s worth, Pronger thanked Edmonton and the Oilers fans in the acknowledgements for the short but unforgettable run.
“It was an honour to be part of Oil Country, and I’ll always be grateful for the memories we have together.”
Earned isn’t a bad book. But it’s underwhelming for fans (and haters) who are accustomed to more detail, more stories, just more that is typical in books written by ex-players. Certain aspects of his career and life are not fleshed out.
How did that decision to sign in Edmonton affect his marriage? When did he know there was no going back? Why are there contradictions between his story now, and stories from previous interviews?
The book tied with the long media tour seems similar to when a politician writes a book before a leadership race or Presidential run. This is the platform Pronger can use to get a general manager or hockey operations job, if he wishes. He’s an intelligent man who obviously has thought deeply about what makes success happen. He would likely make a good executive.
However, whether you’re an Oilers fan or not, Chris Pronger in this book feels like an iceberg, streamlined with much below the surface.
The story is shrouded in secrecy and innuendo and remains unwritten.
Michael Menzies is an Oilersnation columnist and co-host of PreGaming and Oilersnation After Dark. He’s also been the play-by-play voice of the Bonnyville Pontiacs in the AJHL since 2019. With seven years of news experience as the Editor-at-Large of Lakeland Connect in Bonnyville, Menzies collects vinyl, books, and stomach issues. Follow him on X at Menzies_4.
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