​Rumor: The real reason Chris Pronger has walked away from the Florida Panthers.​

The Florida Panthers recently announced that they were parting ways with former National Hockey League star Chris Pronger this week in a statement that caught many by surprise. In the statement the Panthers spoke glowingly of Pronger's time with the team and even wished him well on his new business venture, "a boutique luxury travel company that caters to elite athletes, C-Level executives and business owners" called Well Inspired Travels.

Although things appeared to be rosey on the outside there is now at least one reporter who claims that the split between Pronger and the Florida Panthers was considerably more acrimonious than was made public. In his latest article for the Toronto Sun, controversial Toronto Sports columnist Steve Simmons reports that the real reason between the split was a power struggle at the top levels of the organization, one in which Pronger himself was trying to secure more power.

From Simmons:

There’s more to Chris Pronger leaving the Florida Panthers than has been spoken about. Pronger wanted to be the next general manager and should have been the man to replace Dale Tallon. Word around is that the assistant GM, Eric Joyce, will soon to be elevated to the top job. 

Pronger has been a well respected member of the hockey community for quite some time while the man pegged to replace him, the aforementioned Eric Joyce, has no such pedigree at the National Hockey League level. Simmons writes that Joyce's background is in National Security and even hinted at the fact that this could be another example of the Florida Panthers getting too cute for their own good. Given that Simmons indicated that there may soon be a shift at the general manager position in the Panthers' organization we may not have to wait very long to see how Joyce performs in the role. 

As for Pronger there were many who were quick to criticize him on social media for leaving for a business venture that had relatively little to do with hockey, but if Simmons is indeed correct that may not have been the case at all. Thus far however no one else has reported on Pronger's alleged push to become general manager so we're going to label this a rumor for now.