St. Louis Blues: Why Chris Pronger Was The Hart Trophy Winner

The St. Louis Blues have not had a ton of players honored by the league at the end of the season, in the grand scope of things. So, we might get a little defensive if someone suggests a player that was, was wrongly chosen for an award.

The St. Louis Blues have had only a handful of players, over the years, that have been recognized as the best in the league at what they do the end of the season. Chris Pronger was one such player, doubling up on awards in one of the Blues best seasons.

However, as with everything in sports, there are some that think others deserved it. ESPN just did a list of the 10 least deserving award winners over the last 20 years. Of course, Pronger is on it since why not?

It’s ok in the overall sense. Everyone has their opinion and these things cannot be fully proven. As a St. Louisan, it just stings a little that the league recognized one of our guys as the best and someone else thinks otherwise.

In his defense, the author pointed out that Pronger was not necessarily not deserving. He merely thought Pavel Bure had a better season.

Statistically, it is hard to argue against that. Bure had 58 goals and 94 points that season. However, he did not lead the league that season. Jaromir Jagr had 42 goals and 96 points and that was a down year for them.

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The argument for Bure is that he was basically the only offense the Florida Panthers had that season. That’s fine and understandable, but in theory, Bure was not head and shoulders above his peers. Pronger was.

Pronger had one of the best seasons by any Blues defender. He ended the 1999-2000 year with 14 goals and 62 points.

Now, that is not a gigantic number in the pantheon of defenders scoring. In fact it does not even crack the top 100 for points in one season by a defenseman.

The main difference is Pronger took a gigantic leap that year and led the Blues to the President’s Trophy. Al MacInnis did not miss a ton of time, but he was out with injury during that season.

The Blues were also not an offensive powerhouse either. Only two players had more points than Pronger that season and only six players had more goals.

The funny thing is that Greg Wyshynski makes the case that Pronger should have won the 2010 Conn Smythe because he was the best player and played in front of mediocre goaltending.

Roman Turek had a great regular season, but if anyone argues he was one of the main reasons the Blues played so well that year, they’re crazy. The defenders in front Turek were the biggest reason the Blues went from 13th to first in goals against.

Bure had a great season, there is no doubt of that. As great as he was, he led them to a second place finish in the division. Yes, you can argue he did that with a lesser team, but that’s where each person’s opinion comes in. The Blues were not exactly loaded and Pronger was a big reason they finished with the best regular season record in the NHL.

Next: Re-Drafting the 2012 NHL Draft

Mr. Wyshynski usually knows his stuff, but I think we’ll leave the 1999-00 Hart Trophy race just as it is.

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