St. Louis Blues Surprise Chris Pronger And Fans With Jersey Retirement

The St. Louis Blues managed to keep the future guest of honor and the fans in the dark regarding a certain announcement. It was just the right mix of show and sentiment.

In today’s day and age of social media and members of the press always looking to be the first to break a story, it is near impossible to keep anything a secret. However, the St. Louis Blues kept a rather pleasant surprise secret from their fans and the man of the hour.

On February 8, 2020, it was announced that former Blues captain Chris Pronger will be the next retired number to hang in the rafters of the Enterprise Center. Pronger was not the last player to wear number 44 on the ice for the Blues, but nobody will wear it again now that Pronger is to be honored.

Oddly, the last two players to wear 44 only wore it for one season. Darryl Sydor wore it in 2010 and Jason Arnott donned the swearter in 2012.

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Despite those two players being solid members of the Blues in their brief time here, they will not be remembered the way Pronger will. Even if he did not have his sweater retired, he is and has been remembered as one of the team’s best defensemen and captains.

While with the Blues, Pronger added his name to a small list of players that won both the Hart Trophy, as league MVP, and the Norris Trophy for the best defenseman. People remember his teammate Al MacInnis for his blistering shot, but they remember Pronger for his punishing style and fiery temper on the ice. It is fitting that they will forever be linked on opposite sides of banner row in the rafters.

The strong a versatile defender averaged close to, and sometimes over, 30 minutes of ice time per game. While never known as an offensive defenseman, he still put up high point totals, with his Hart season featuring 62 regular season points.

Despite losing to the San Jose Sharks during their Presidents Trophy season, Pronger scored three goals and had seven points in that series. The following season, when the team went to the Western Conference Final, Pronger had eight points and averaged over 33 minutes on the ice. Think about that for a moment. Pronger was on the ice for more than half a game.

The cool thing about this, other than Pronger’s number being retired at some point during the 2020-21 season, is the fact it was all kept secret. Maybe there were whispers within Pronger’s circle, but he did not seem to know it was coming and neither did fans.

Pronger was under the understanding that he was only in town to take part in a season ticket holder event. Intead, his former teammate gave him the good news.

It is difficult to tell from the angle of the camera, but it seemed as though Pronger was holding back the emotions.

Pronger went to a Stanley Cup Final in Edmonton. He won the Stanley Cup the following year with the Anaheim Ducks, but then injuries derailed his career. It was not a definitive end like MacInnis, but it was coming after several concussions.

The sad thing is he did not have longer in St. Louis. Nine seasons is a long time, but the ownership forced the trade of Pronger as a cost-cutting measure while the defender was still in his prime.

When he was traded to the Blues for Brendan Shanahan, nobody could have seen this coming. At the time, we were all still fuming that the Blues would do such a thing as trade one of the best wingers on the team outside of Brett Hull.

What we got in return turned out to be one of the best leaders the team had in a long time and a future Hall of Fame player. Now, next season, he will be forever remembered as a member of the Blues as the eighth player to have his number retired for the Note.