Flyers' Pronger has minor knee surgery, should be ready by training camp

Flyers defenseman Chris Pronger had minor knee surgery last week, according to general manager Paul Holmgren.

"He will be ready for the start of training camp [in September]," Holmgren said.

Pronger had "loose bodies" removed on July 27 by Dr. Peter DeLuca at Virtua's outpatient facility in Voorhees, N.J. Pronger has begun to rehab the knee.

Pronger, who will be 36 in October, played all 82 regular-season games last season, his first with the Flyers. He had 10 goals, 45 assists and 79 penalty minutes. In 23 playoff games, Pronger had four goals, 14 assists and 36 penalty minutes.

Pronger averaged more than 25 minutes of ice time during the regular season and nearly 30 minutes in the playoffs, as the Flyers made a run to the Stanley Cup finals before losing to the Blackhawks in six games.

Coach Peter Laviolette talked yesterday about how the Flyers' acquisition of defensemen Andrej Meszaros, Sean O'Donnell and Matt Walker in the offseason should help keep down the ice time of Pronger and Kimmo Timonen.

"I think when you get into playing defensemen 30 minutes a night, consistently every night, it takes a toll on those players," Laviolette said to the team's public relations staff.

"Healthwise we were pretty fortunate last season with our top four. I think we had 3-4 total man-games [lost] for our top four guys . . .

"These acquisitions give us more of a luxury of possibly resting other players. Like I said, we have real good depth on the back end and this can give us a chance to cut back on some minutes and get more of a roll on the back end."

Laviolette also talked about the trade of winger Simon Gagne to Tampa Bay: "Simon is a very good player," Laviolette said. "He is a skilled guy. I know he has played in Philadelphia for a long time. He was well liked by the organization and fans and myself. It was one of those moves that is tough to take but hockey is the business we are in right now with salary-cap issues." *