In a recent LinkedIn response post, Kevin Lowe — former vice-chairman of Oilers Entertainment Group, GM and head coach — shared his thoughts on Chris Pronger’s retelling of why he wanted to be traded away from the Edmonton Oilers after their playoff run in 2006. Having only played one season with the team, Pronger demanded out. He blamed a drunken phone call and poor decision not to communicate with his wife as the reason for his needing to leave.

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Pronger dismissed rumors that his wife hated Edmonton, or speculation that infidelity was part of the issue. Instead, he claims that he negotiated an extension late at night while he had been drinking, and didn’t bother to wake his wife up and include her in the conversation. To save his marriage, he needed to make it right, and they both wanted a fresh start.

It was a new version of the story that hasn’t sat well with many fans, and to wash away a very emotional time for Oilers fans didn’t sit well with Lowe, either.

He noted in a recent LinkedIn post:

“You may have read Chris Pronger’s recent piece in ‘The Athletic’, and I can’t overstate how disappointed I was after reading it in full. To his credit, he takes responsibility for making a personal decision in the middle of the night that impacted his family. That part is fair. We’ve all made mistakes, and owning them matters. But where I take issue is how casually Edmonton is folded into that story as though it were merely an inconvenience tied to what he now describes as a “drunken decision.”

Lowe adds, “That’s more than disappointing; it feels like a convenient rewrite.”

“I handled that situation the way I always tried to: professionally, responsibly, and in good faith. Looking back, hearing how he frames it today, I find myself wishing I had handled it differently. Quite frankly, I wish I had said no and let him sit out rather than accommodate a decision he now seems so quick to diminish.”

Was Pronger Trying to Brush Away a Huge Moment in Oilers History?

Lowe was not at all pleased at how flippantly Pronger seemed to play off a moment in Oilers history that will not soon be forgotten. Lowe claims that the Prongers weren’t upset at all about the longer extension and that his telling of the story now feels like damage control.

“What makes this even harder to reconcile is what followed immediately after. The day after the agreement, I received a personal note from his wife expressing how excited they both were about coming to Edmonton. That sentiment doesn’t align with the version of events being portrayed now. Perhaps at the time he was trying to reset the narrative or distance himself from circulating rumours but it stands in stark contrast to what’s being shared today.”

Lowe said that other past Oilers don’t share the same feeling about the city and their time with the franchise. Low noted, “Edmonton is a first-class city with passionate fans and a proud hockey tradition. It is not a punchline, and it is not something to be explained away years later. It deserves better than that and so do the people who supported him while he was here.”

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