Chris Pronger is functionally retired. He even works on NHL Disciplinary czar Stephane Quintal's support staff with the Department of Player Safety. For paperwork purposes, though, Pronger remains an active player on long-term injured reserve and under contract with the Philadelphia Flyers through the 2016-17 NHL season.

At the start of every hockey season Pronger is placed on long-term injured reserve, and the free-spending Flyers are allowed to exceed the upper limit of the NHL's salary cap by the same amount as the roughly $4.9-million average annual value of his deal.

It's a minor annoyance, but Flyers general manager Ron Hextall nonetheless tried to unburden himself of the contract over the summer, according to a report from Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman:

After Chris Pronger’s NHL hiring was announced, Flyers GM Ron Hextall said he’d tried to get something done about the injured defender’s contract, so that it would no longer hang over the team. He didn’t have success from a CBA standpoint. But, last weekend, a couple of sources indicated Philadelphia attempted to trade his rights during the summer. Can’t pin down who, (or for what), but there were some reasonably serious discussions.

Technically speaking, NHL member clubs are forbidden from "buying" players in the way European soccer clubs do. If the Flyers had indeed traded Pronger, the deal would've essentially been a backdoor way of a club buying an asset from the Flyers, which would've been fascinating.

What positive inducements would the Flyers have included to convince another club to take on a paperwork liability and just over $5 million of salary over three years? Friedman's report doesn't specify, but the lubricant would've likely been pretty substantial.