Blues retire Pronger's number on 'very special' night in St. Louis

ST. LOUIS -- Chris Pronger had his No. 44 retired by the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center on Monday.

The Hockey Hall of Famer's number is the eighth retired by the Blues, joining Al MacInnis (No. 2), Bob Gassoff (No. 3), Bob Plager (No. 5), Barclay Plager (No. 8), Brian Sutter (No. 11), Brett Hull (No. 16) and Bernie Federko (No. 24).
Pronger was acquired by the Blues from the Hartford Whalers for Brendan Shanahan by then-GM/coach Mike Keenan on July 27, 1995. He spent nine of his 18 NHL seasons with the Blues. In 598 regular-season games, he scored 356 points (84 goals, 272 assists) and was a four-time All-Star. He won the Hart Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player and the Norris Trophy as the best defenseman in 1999-2000, when the Blues also won the Presidents' Trophy for having the best record in the NHL. He finished in the top five in Norris Trophy voting five times.
RELATED: [Pronger talks Blues, family travel business]
In 2017, Pronger was named one of the
"100 Greatest NHL Players" by the League
.
"You look at the people that helped bring me here in Mike Keenan and then obviously with the coaching staff in Roger [Neilson] and Jimmy [Roberts] ... the veteran leaders that we had on that team, there's lots of guys," Pronger said regarding his arrival in St. Louis. "It takes a village, really, when you think about it and you play a long time. It's hard to thank them all."
At one point, Pronger raised a toast to the crowd at Enterprise Center.

"Seeing it go up, I think it will be a lot different seeing it beside the other numbers," Pronger said. "But seeing it raised to the rafters is very special."
Pronger was flanked by his wife Lauren, his three children in sons Jack and George, daughter Lilah, parents Jim and Eila and his brother Sean as the banner was raised to the rafters.
"They've obviously seen a lot of the highlights," Pronger said of his kids, "and some of the reels that kind of get shown around on the internet, but the good part of it they get to see what I meant to the organization and the team and the fans, I think is pretty neat and special to have them. They were there for my Hall of Fame induction and things like that, saw me play a little bit in Philly, but I think their time in Anaheim when we won the Cup, they were still pretty young. I think they were 5 and 3 when we won the Cup in Anaheim. To be able to see this and be a part of it is pretty special."