2

SPORTS

The Edmonton Sun n Wednesday, november 30, 2011

appreciating Pronger
At Large
@sunterryjones

PieCe no. 2:
Currently sitting in the top 10 of NHL scoring, Lupul didnt turn into much for the Oilers.

jones

terry

terry.jones@sunmedia.ca

Has the time come for Edmonton to consider revising a little history here? Is the day coming, or here already, to put Chris Pronger on a pedestal for choosing to leave Edmonton? Has the time arrived to celebrate the genius of Kevin Lowe for what happened on July 3, 2006? Ian Burgess, a Grande Prairie hockey fan currently attending the University of Alberta and living in Sherwood Park,

has produced what he calls The Chris Pronger Flow Chart to prove that the future the Edmonton Oilers are proceeding towards begins in a most positive way on that supposedly dark day in Oilers history. Pronger asked to be traded from the Edmonton Oilers after he had helped lead the team, improved by several key trade-deadline deals by Lowe, to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final.

Joffrey Lupul

JOffRey LuPuL

and
JaSOn SmiTh

to

Fan charts the benefits of the maligned trade

For Geoff Sanderson, Joni Pitkanen and a third-round pick in the 2009 draft.

PieCe no. 1:
The Anaheim prospect.
This year LADISLAV SMID, who came out of that deal, appears to have finally become the player the Oilers believed would develop into a major-minutes, total-pro top-four defenceman.

Sanderson played

and retired. SandeRSOn

41 games

traded for
PiTkanen eRik cOLe
with fifthround pick

for

traded for

traded to

PaTRick OSuLLivan

the deal:
Lowe ended up with five pieces out of the trade with Brian Burke and the Anaheim Ducks.

who, this past July, signed as a free agent with San Jose

Jim vandeRmeeR

and secondround pick in 2009 from Los Angeles

The second-round pick in the deal was traded to Buffalo for Ales Kotalik, who signed in 2009 as a free agent with the Rangers.

kOTaLik

LOwe Key trades

buRke Five pieces

The third-round pick turned into

cameROn abney

Chris Pronger traded for:

LadiSLav Smid