OPINION

By Craig Custance

updated 11:08 p.m. ET June 26, 2009

MONTREAL - Paul Holmgren knows he gave up a lot. To get Chris Pronger from Anaheim, Philadelphia surrendered promising young defenseman Luca Sbisa, Joffrey Lupul, two first-round picks and a third round pick.

"Ask me a year from now, a couple years from now if it was worth that," Holmgren said here at the draft in Montreal.

But in acquiring Pronger, he served notice to the Pittsburgh Penguins that Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin's days of roaming free in front of Philadelphia goalies are over. In Pronger, they now have that nasty defenseman who will make it miserable on the Penguins and everybody else the Flyers play next season. Holmgren wouldn't call him the missing piece, but his style of play was certainly something the Flyers didn't have. Now they do.

"Through the years we've improved our defense, at the same time we've changed to be more adaptable to the new NHL, the speed of the game but when you get a chance to add Chris - He can play," Holmgren said. "Because of his presence and the way he can pass the puck and help on the power play, he has a tremendous shot - he can bring a lot of things to our team."

Pronger has one more year remaining on his contract and will be a cap-hit of $6.25 million. Clearing Lupul's salary certainly helps and Holmgren said his team is under the cap. But the Flyers will sit down soon with Pronger and his agent to talk about a possible contract extension. You don't give up the assets Holmgren did just to keep him around for one year.

The Flyers are a better team with Pronger and Holmgren made it clear that the winning needs to start now. First-round exits won't be tolerated.

"He's a proven winner," Holmgren said. "He's going to make all our other defenseman on our team better around him. He'll be an excellent role model for all of our young players in our organization."

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