Chris Pronger is hockey royalty, escorted into the NHL while still a teenager as a prelude to a career filled with at least one achievement that eluded even the great Wayne Gretzky.
Shawn Thornton, meanwhile, had no such red-carpet ride. Drafted as a seventh-round afterthought, he brawled his way into the NHL one punch at a time.
This past June, Pronger and Thornton joined the Panthers organization. Pronger, 43, is the senior advisor to the president of hockey operations. Thornton, 40, was hired as vice president of business operations.
Pronger and Thornton — together with 42-year-old Bryan McCabe, who in June was promoted to director of player personnel — form what could be the future of Panthers management.