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Trade: Flyers unload Pronger’s contract, get Gagner from Coyotes

Chris Pronger Press Conference and Portrait Session

Chris Pronger Press Conference and Portrait Session

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For a minute there, it seemed like the Philadelphia Flyers might enter an era in which splashy moves rarely happened.

Maybe those days are still largely over, but the past echoes in an eyebrow-raising deal: the Flyers send Nicklas Grossmann and the contract of Chris Pronger (their phrasing) to the Arizona Coyotes for Sam Gagner and a conditional draft pick in 2016 and 2017.

These are believed to be the conditions:

The Flyers also retained some money in the deal:

Philly’s side: While the Flyers have been able to stash Pronger’s cap hit on LTIR once the season starts, they’ve been somewhat limited in their moves during each summer thanks to that albatross (not to mention Nicklas Grossmann’s $3 million cap hit). Philadelphia gets an interesting piece in Gagner; it’s easy to forget that the flawed-yet-skilled forward is still just 25.

Let’s just say a lot of Flyers fans are excited.

Arizona’s side: The Coyotes can spin Dave Tippett’s approval of Grossman all they’d like, but it’s ultimately about money.

Pronger’s cap hit is $4.94 million, but his salary is just $575K for the next two campaigns. There’s no sense denying how much money this franchise needs to save - at least in the near future - and Pronger’s deal is very helpful in that regard.