Sotnos said:
Agreed. The amount of players expecting their personal needs to be accomodated this year is getting ridiculous. If someone was giving me a 7 figure salary, I'd put up with a LOT.
I don't see where people are saying they're not entitled to be unhappy, they can think/feel whatever they want. Expecting multi-million dollar corporations to bend over backwards because of your personal problems is asking a bit too much IMO.
I'm not understanding some of the responses here. We all have to put up with inconveniences in life, why should these guys be any different?
Maybe I should rephrase what I stated earlier.
If I were an Oilers fan would I be ticked off? You bet I would. But what can anyone do about it? If the guy wants to break his contract and leave, well then all I can say is "Don't let the door hit you on the way out" (or whatever that phrase is.) Personally, my respect for that player would go down, I don't have a lot of respect for people (no matter their occupation) who make a promise (in this case) to a team, to an organization and to the fans and then decide that it just isn't going to work out. I think that Mr. Pronger and his wife should have thought long and hard about moving to Edmonton in the beginning. Would that be a lifestyle that his family could adjust to and eventually accept? Maybe they should have looked at the sacrifices they would have to make (by moving to Edmonton) instead of looking at the dollar signs. I don't know, maybe they did, who knows. Maybe he should have signed for just a year. But like someone pointed out in an earlier post, this will be a negative mark for Pronger; might not be a huge negative, but it will always be there. In the future, there may be organizations that will be reluctant to sign him due to the choice he made in Edmonton.
As far as his wife is concerned and her problem with Edmonton is that it isn't quite the cosmopolitan city she desires, personally (and please note, I said
personally; just my point of view) I don't feel sorry for her. As a female, if I were to ever be in the position of marrying a hockey player, I would take into consideration that along with some of the nice little benefits, there will also be sacrifices I would have to make; like possibly having to move to a city/country that I might not even remotely consider moving to if it weren't for the fact of being married. If I could not say to myself that I would be willing to move anywhere, then I don't see how I could commit myself to marrying a man whose job required possible relocations. Your husband plays hockey, you knew that when you married him, you should have known that relocation might be in the cards somewhere down the line, if you can't accept that fact, don't marry the guy.
But, in the end, Pronger can do what he wants, and if his family isn't happy in Edmonton, then Pronger won't be happy in Edmonton. And if he feels it is necessary for him to break his contract, then let him. There's not much anyone can really do about it (except maybe you could TP his house the day he puts it on the market).
If a player doesn't want to live in my city, and play for my team, then he can take his happy you-know-what somewhere else.
Whew, that was a tad bit longwinded.
