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<\/p>\nChris Pronger played for five teams during nearly two decades in the NHL. He has bounced around just as much since his playing days came to an end.<\/p>\n
Writing a book is the latest chapter of the Hall of Fame defenseman’s winding post-career journey. \u201cEarned: The True Cost of Greatness from One of Hockey\u2019s Fiercest Competitors\u201d came out Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve done a lot of different things,\u201d Pronger said in a phone interview. \u201cI went down the path of working in the league office, and then I worked for a team and then I took a break from hockey and helped my wife build out her business and kind of had the entrepreneurial bug and started to dive into business in that regard. And now kind of full-circle. I\u2019ve kind of come back into hockey in the sense of broadcasting and public speaking.\u201d<\/p>\n
A stick to the right eye and the ensuing injury and concussion forced him to call it quits in 2011. Pronger said his first steps were getting healthy, retraining the eye and dealing with the post-concussion symptoms.<\/p>\n
“That took some time,\u201d Pronger said. \u201cThat was a challenge just in watching the games. You still think you can play. I had to realize first and foremost, this is not happening. I\u2019m not physically able to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was still under contract when he joined the NHL’s Department of Player Safety in 2014 and when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2015, since its bylaws require three years away from the last regulation game played and Pronger qualified. When his contract expired in 2017, he joined the Florida Panthers front office as a senior adviser.<\/p>\n
After spending three years in that job, he settled into a quieter life in the St. Louis suburbs, with little desire to get back into the sport that was his life for so long. He was back in arenas this season as part of Amazon Prime’s \u201cMonday Night Hockey.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In this Dec. 31, 2016, file photo, former St. Louis Blues’ Chris Pronger, left, laughs with former Chicago Blackhawks’ Kyle Calder after a check during the Winter Classic alumni outdoor hockey game at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. Credit: AP\/Billy Hurst<\/p>\n
As for what’s next, the 51-year-old is not closing the door on working for an NHL team again.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never say never,\u201d Pronger said. \u201cI\u2019ve had a couple opportunities over the years. It wasn\u2019t the right fit, either for me or for them. I\u2019m not pining over a job, but I\u2019m certainly willing to have a conversation and talk to somebody, if they\u2019re interested. But it would have to be the right team, the right position, the right job, the right opportunity that made sense and was appealing.\u201d<\/p>\n
First, he wanted to write the book, which is as much self-help and motivation and a behind-the-scenes peek at Pronger\u2019s life and career than a retelling of how it all unfolded on the ice and in the public eye.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe book is more for people than a typical sports book, where you\u2019re reading about my career and a lot of things that maybe you can probably Google about me,\u201d Pronger said. \u201cNot that I\u2019m bearing my soul, per se, but I\u2019m peeling back the onion layers of difficult decisions and how we all have to continue to evolve and grow.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chris Pronger played for five teams during nearly two decades in the NHL. He has bounced around just…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[2210,233,5292,27610,1739,1928,5,4,1105],"class_list":{"0":"post-554015","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anaheim-ducks","8":"tag-anaheim","9":"tag-anaheim-ducks","10":"tag-anaheimducks","11":"tag-ap-a-wire","12":"tag-ducks","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-hockey","15":"tag-nhl","16":"tag-wires-bot"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116415987199349911","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}