{"id":605122,"date":"2026-04-15T06:39:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T06:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/605122\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T06:39:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T06:39:13","slug":"chris-pronger-reveals-he-agreed-to-long-term-contract-with-oilers-while-drunk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/605122\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Pronger reveals he agreed to long-term contract with Oilers while drunk"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Chris Pronger<\/a> was traded to the Edmonton Oilers on Aug. 3, 2005 and signed a long-term contract hours later, he was drunk and didn\u2019t consult with his wife, Lauren, before signing the deal.
The Athletic, in conjunction with Pronger, published a section<\/a> of his upcoming book <\/a>Earned: The True Cost of Greatness from One of Hockey\u2019s Fiercest Competitors on Monday morning, ahead of its release on Tuesday.\u00a0He says that the night he was traded to Edmonton<\/a>, he was at a friend\u2019s house celebrating a birthday party and \u201cconsumed a plethora of alcoholic beverages\u201d and had a \u201cgood buzz going\u201d when he learned about the trade.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy phone rang. It was my agent. I ducked into a quiet room, half-drunk, thinking I was headed to Los Angeles, Florida, maybe Boston. Those were the teams we had heard whispers about,\u201d the book says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEdmonton,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Edmonton? Nobody mentioned f\u2014ing Edmonton.<\/p>\n

On our way home, Lauren and I stopped at a bookstore. She asked the clerk, \u201cDo you have any books about Edmonton?\u201d<\/p>\n

The woman looked at her like she\u2019d asked for books about the North Pole. \u201cWhy would anyone want to go there?\u201d<\/p>\n

Pronger says that he and his wife talked that night about signing a qualifying offer and trying Edmonton for one year, since the city was not on their radar at the time, and Lauren had never been there before. <\/p>\n

After his wife went to bed, Pronger\u2019s agent called again at 1 a.m, saying Edmonton wanted to talk about a long-term contract. He mulled over the situation \u201cseveral more beers deep\u201d and started negotiating without his wife\u2019s knowledge. By 2 a.m., he agreed to a five-year, $31.25 million contract.<\/p>\n

\u201cFive years,\u201d I told her the next morning.<\/p>\n

The silence that followed was louder than any arena crowd.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou made a five-year commitment about our lives without talking to me? While you were drunk?\u201d<\/p>\n

No excuses. That was my standard. So I owned it.<\/p>\n

He says that\u2019s where the narrative and the rumours were wrong, that Lauren didn\u2019t hate Canada, but that Pronger had made the decision without talking with his wife.<\/p>\n

Pronger says he knew the situation wasn\u2019t working by November, and played the remainder of the season knowing he would be leaving.<\/p>\n

Do you understand what that\u2019s like? Suiting up every night for fans who love you, teammates who trust you, knowing you\u2019re going to break their hearts? But I\u2019d already broken a more important trust. I\u2019d chosen my career over my family once. I wasn\u2019t doing it again.<\/p>\n

After we lost Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final in Carolina on June 19, 2006, the news broke almost immediately. I flew home the next morning and had our rental furniture picked up. Then I left the following day. Rumors spread \u2014 can\u2019t be that he screwed up. Can\u2019t be that he made a bad decision. Must be his American wife.<\/p>\n

None of the rumors were accurate. The truth was: I\u2019d made a promise to my wife, broken it and spent a year trying to make it right.<\/p>\n

He joined the\u00a0Ask Dubey<\/a>\u00a0show on Saturday and said the Stanley Cup Final loss still doesn\u2019t sit right with him. Pronger said on that show that he quit drinking two years ago.Full Ask Dubey show<\/p>\n

Michael Menzies is an Oilersnation columnist and co-host of PreGaming and Oilersnation After Dark. He\u2019s also been the play-by-play voice of the Bonnyville Pontiacs in the AJHL since 2019. With seven years of news experience as the Editor-at-Large of Lakeland Connect in Bonnyville, Menzies collects vinyl, books, and stomach issues. Follow him on X at Menzies_4.\u00a0<\/p>\n

OIL UP: The Oilersnation Playoff Collection Is Here\"\"<\/a>Edmonton, the playoffs are calling\u2014and it\u2019s time to answer. We are so back, and Oilersnation is ready with the OIL UP playoff collection, available now. From tees and hoodies to hats built for every game-day fit, this drop has everything you need all postseason long. Whether you\u2019re heading to a watch party, the rink, or setting up camp in front of the TV, consider this your official playoff uniform. Don\u2019t wait\u2014gear up before puck drop. Shop the full collection now at nationgear.ca<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Chris Pronger was traded to the Edmonton Oilers on Aug. 3, 2005 and signed a long-term contract…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605123,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752],"class_list":{"0":"post-605122","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edmonton","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-edmonton"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}