Few people had a closer seat to Chris Pronger’s tenure with the Edmonton Oilers than Kevin Lowe.

As the general manager who acquired the hulking defenceman from the St. Louis Blues on Aug. 3, 2005, only to trade him 11 months later to the Anaheim Ducks, he was front and centre for all of the drama.

And now, 20 years later, with Pronger releasing a book Tuesday where he details a drunken decision that August night to sign a five-year extension with the Oilers, Lowe had his say on the whole fiasco — one which offers a contradictory view of events.

“You may have read Chris Pronger’s recent piece in ‘The Athletic’, and I can’t overstate how disappointed I was after reading it in full,” Lowe opined on his LinkedIn account Tuesday. “To his credit, he takes responsibility for making a personal decision in the middle of the night that impacted his family. That part is fair. We’ve all made mistakes, and owning them matters.

“But 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.'”

In his post, Lowe wrote he feels he handled those 11 months “the way I always tried to: professionally, responsibly, and in good faith.” Pronger’s telling of the story, however, has him feeling otherwise.

“Looking back, hearing how he frames it today, I find myself wishing I had handled it differently,” Lowe wrote. “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 Pronger’s book, he details how his acquisition by the Oilers caught him, and his wife, Lauren, off guard. With the Oilers not wanting to pay Pronger the $7.3 million qualifying offer he was due, the team and Pronger’s agent got to work on a new contract. Hours later, with Lauren asleep and Pronger still celebrating a friend’s birthday party at 2 a.m., Pronger approved the five-year extension under the influence, and without consulting his wife.

“You made a five-year commitment about our lives without talking to me? While you were drunk?” Pronger’s book said of his wife’s reaction, adding that Lauren didn’t hate Canada, but rather had been upset about the decision being made without talking to her. Nevertheless, Pronger said by November of that season, he already knew he would be forcing the Oilers to trade him the following summer.

Lowe, however, took objection.

“What makes this even harder to reconcile is what followed immediately after (the contract being signed),” Lowe said. “The day after the agreement, I received a personal note from his wife expressing how excited they both were about coming to Edmonton. That sentiment doesn’t align with the version of events being portrayed now.

“Perhaps at the time he was trying to reset the narrative or distance himself from circulating rumours ,but it stands in stark contrast to what’s being shared today.

“Edmonton is a first class city with passionate fans and a proud hockey tradition. It is not a punchline, and it is not something to be explained away years later.”

It should be no surprise to see Lowe’s staunch support of the Edmonton market. He is, after all, the first draft pick in franchise history, the organization’s games-played leader, and a five-time Cup winner in the city.

Pronger wasn’t the first player to leave Edmonton on disgruntled terms, and he certainly won’t be the last. Hockey is a business, after all, and sometimes tough business decisions need to be made by the organization. What happened with Doug Weight and Bill Guerin are good examples, with both being unceremoniously shipped off to greener pastures.

“In 2023, the night before Doug Weight’s induction into the Edmonton Oilers Hall of Fame, I had the privilege of joining Doug, Bill Guerin, and their families for a private dinner,” wrote Lowe. “Both spoke glowingly about the city of Edmonton and how pivotal it was to their careers and how meaningful it was to their family lives. That has been the experience for the vast majority of players who have come through here.”

Shots fired.

Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s managing editor, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the Daily Faceoff DFS Hockey Report. He can be followed on X at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.

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