PR - Hurricanes

OH CAPTAIN MY CAPTAIN: CHRIS PRONGER TRADED TO OWLS IN A BLOCKBUSTER DEAL
Hurricanes captain traded to conference rivals

CALGARY, AB - The Calgary Hurricanes announced today that captain Chris Pronger was traded to the Owls. Along with Chris Pronger will be another defenseman Pavel Kubina and young forwards Ryan Kesler and Ryan Flinn. Coming back to the Hurricanes will be a slew of new players including defensemen Wade Redden and Kenny Jonsson, as well as forwards Matthew Lombardi, Maxim Afinogenov and Justin Williams.

"We made a significant change in our team today. We had to make a choice with our defensemen. Quite simply we had both Bryan Mccabe and Chris Prongers' contracts
expiring at the end of the season. Chris would have simply costed too much for us to keep him, therefore we can still keep Mccabe but also surround our team with another talented
defenseman in Wade Redden." said GM Derek Major.

Both Chris Pronger and Pavel Kubina were key players in the TFHL12 Hurricanes championship team and will undoubtedly be missed. Players throughout the team were stunned to learn of the change of the guard in Calgary. "Chris has been our leader for several seasons, its going to be a different atmosphere for sure. But I realize the business side of
things takes precedence sometimes." said Markus Naslund.

"We have a lot of depth in this organization. We expect all of the 5 guys we brought to our team today to contribute for many seasons. Today is an exciting day."

The Calgary Hurricanes have also announced that they will not name a new captain until the new season. Bryan Mccabe was added as an alternate captain along with existing alternate captains Markus Naslund and Shawn Bates.


Calgary Sun 2006