Kevin Lowe calls out Chris Pronger for lying about how things ended in Edmonton

Hockey Hall of Famer Chris Pronger is making the media rounds this week to promote his new autobiography titled "Earned: The True Cost of Greatness from One of Hockey's Fiercest Competitors".

Yesterday in an interview with The Athletic as part of his media rounds, Pronger told a story of negotiating and signing a contract with then Edmonton Oilers GM Kevin Lowe after downing “a plethora of alcoholic beverages” in his own words.

From Pronger's book:

Here’s where I fucked up — and where the story you think you know goes sideways. Lauren and I had talked it through that night. We talked about signing my qualifying offer with Edmonton — a place Lauren had never even been to yet — and decided to give it a try for one year.

Sign my qualifying offer — one year at $7.2 million — then reevaluate. We’d just lost an entire season to the lockout, and my contract had been rolled back 24 percent. Going from St. Louis to Edmonton for just one year? We could handle that. Then, we could evaluate and see what we wanted to do from there. Then she went to bed.

But at 1 a.m., my agent called back. “They want to talk contract. They don’t want you playing on a one-year deal. They cannot afford a contract with $7 million in the number.”

I should’ve said no. Should’ve said I need to sleep on it. Should’ve said I need to talk to my wife. Instead, sitting in my home office, several more beers deep, we started negotiating.

By 2 a.m., I’d agreed to five years.

Lauren went to bed thinking I would sign for one year. That was the plan. Test it out, see if Edmonton worked for our family, then decide.

“Five years,” I told her the next morning.

The silence that followed was louder than any arena crowd.

“You made a five-year commitment about our lives without talking to me? While you were drunk?”

No excuses. That was my standard. So I owned it.

“Yes. I f—ed up. I let my agent drive the conversation, I was drinking, and I made a decision that affects our entire family without including you. There’s no excuse for that.”

Sound a bit rich?

Personally, to me it sounds pretty contrived. And that's exactly what Kevin Lowe himself thinks as well.

Today Lowe called out Pronger on social media, saying that he mischaracterized how things went down.

Lowe's post from earlier today:

The "rumors" that both parties are alluding to, of course, were rumors that Pronger had an affair and cheated on his wife during his time in Edmonton. Neither party would confirm those rumors, but Lowe does seem to indicate that Pronger is using this story about going behind his wife's back as a way to evade questions about his fidelity.

Any way you look at it, Pronger comes across looking pretty foolish.

When he signed in Edmonton he was just 30 years old and in the prime of his career. He could have signed just about any contract he wanted with any team he wanted. Instead he signed a deal that he immediately regretted.

Brain dead behavior from one of the game's all time greats...