Welcome to LWOS’ Summer Hockey Series, Best of the Rest. Plenty of sites do a version of a 30 greats in 30 days series, but this year we are doing something a little bit different. We want to look at the best player from each team who is not in the Hockey Hall Of Fame. In order to do this there are some rules. First the player must have been a significant part of this franchise (franchises include their time in a previous city… see Winnipeg/Atlanta) and must be retired for at least 3 years, making them Hall of Fame eligible. To see all the articles in the series, check out the homepage here.
In 1973, Philadelphia Bulletin’s Pete Cafone and Jack Chevalier gave the Philadelphia Flyers a nickname that is still said with passion and emotion to this day; The Broad Street Bullies. A team that played rough and tough, in your face hockey and never backed down from a fight. That mentality led the team to two Stanley Cups and four Conference Championships in the 70’s, a decade when the Flyers were feared by the league.
The 1970’s Flyers plays a big role in why the franchise has sent 15 names to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Included in the names are notables such as Peter Forsberg, Adam Oates and Paul Coffey — players who spent the majority of their careers in other cities before coming to the city of Brotherly Love. Then you have Bobby Clarke, Bernie Parent, and Bill Barber whom all spent significant time with the Flyers franchise and were all part of the 1973-74 and 1974-75 Stanley Cup winning teams. The most recent hall of fame inductee with strong Flyers ties is defenceman Mark Howe. To find the next gem out of Philadelphia would mean to look outside of the Cup-winning 70s, and three-time Cup Finalist 80s, but you wouldn’t have to look too far. Some may even say he should already be in the Hall of Fame.
Philadelphia Flyers – Eric Lindros
When the Québec Nordiques had the 1st overall pick in 1991, they had their minds made up before sitting down at their draft table. Even if it came with the knowledge that Lindros would refuse to play for the Nordiques if he was drafted by them, Nordiques management was convinced they could lure Lindros into the city and change his mind. When they called his name, he refused to put on the jersey. When they sat down with him to talk, their hopes came crashing down. In hindsight, this shouldn’t have come to a surprise to anyone. Lindros had already pulled this stunt in similar fashion when he refused to sign with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, even after getting drafted by them. It was what it was; if Lindros didn’t want to play for you, he wasn’t going to play for you.
After Nordiques president Marcel Aubut came face to face with reality, the team sat down with an arbitrator to decide where Lindros would go. Québec had two fantastic deals on the table and the arbitration process would decide which deal was deemed “fitting” for a player of Lindros’ caliber and hype. In the end, the offers came from the New York Rangers and the Philadelphia Flyers. The Rangers offered Doug Weight, Tony Amonte, Alexei Kovalev, John Vanbiesbrouck, three first round draft picks (in 1993, 1994 and 1995) and $12 million in cash. It was the Flyers that won the Lindros sweepstakes, as their offer of Peter Forsberg, Ron Hextall, Chris Simon, Mike Ricci, Kerry Huffman, Steve Duchesne, two first round picks (in 1994 and 1995) and $15 million in cash. While the trade set the Nordiques-turned-Avalanche for the next ten years, the Flyers had their guy. A big, power-forward that could score goals in bunches and drop just as many bodies on the way to the net.
His impact with the Flyers was instantaneous. Lindros put up back-to-back 40-goal seasons in his first two years with the team (41 in 1992-92, 44 in 1993-94) and became a force on the ice. Lindros was named captain in 1994, succeeding Kevin Dineen. Lindros was placed on a line with former Montreal Canadiens John Leclair and Mikael Renberg and together they formed the Legion of Doom, a trio that wreaked havoc in the NHL. The decision to form the line payed dividends as Lindros scored 29 goals and 41 assists in 46 games during the lockout shortened 1995 season. Lindros also received the Hart Memorial Trophy and the Flyers broke into the post-season picture for the first time in six years.
The “Big E” had failed to lead the team to the promised land in 1997, despite running through the Pittsburgh Penguins, Buffalo Sabres and New York Rangers en route to the Stanley Cup finals, with all series ending quickly in five games. The Flyers would be stopped dead in their tracks, getting swept by the Detroit Red Wings. The Legion of Doom became a myth as the Lidstrom-Murphy pairing shut down the offensive juggernaut and reduced Lindros to one measly goal. It was a playoff run that wasn’t meant to be and the following years only became tougher for the big man.
While Lindros was a big man with small man hands and his play was nothing short of spectacular, he also wasn’t immune to criticism. In 1998, Lindros took a hard hit from Penguins defenseman Darius Kasparaitis that left him concussed and took him out of the line-up for 18 games. He also missed two games following his second concussion the next year. That same year, Lindros would come close to losing his life. Had it not been for Flyers teammate Keith Jones, the Flyers could have made the single biggest mistake in franchise history. After Jones found Lindros passed out in an ice tub, pale and unconscious, the team decided to fly Lindros back to Philadelphia. Jones declared it was a bad idea and that he should be sent to the hospital, which the team would eventually agree. Doctors later confirmed that had Jones not spoken up, Lindros would have arrived in Philadelphia deceased.
In the 1999-2000 season, Lindros would suffer his third and fourth concussion before criticizing team doctors about misdiagnosing his condition and clearing him for play. The statement resulted in Lindros losing the captaincy. The following season, the Flyers organization refused a trade for Lindros to be sent to Toronto — a destination he had hoped to land in — and thus, he sat out for the entire 2000-01 campaign. In the off-season, the Flyers traded Lindros to the New York Rangers for Jan Hlavac, Kim Johnsson, Pavel Brendl and a 2003 third round pick. In a sense of irony, given your taste, the Flyers also included a conditional 2003 first round pick. The condition; if Lindros suffered a concussion in pre-season or the first fifty games of the regular season and did not come back in the next twelve months, the Rangers would be rewarded the first round selection.
Lindros played just three seasons with the Rangers and in those three, he played only one full season healthy. His concussion count went up to eight and he also suffered an array of injuries including one that forced him to miss his 7th and final all-star game appearance in the 2001-02 season, where Lindros put up just over a point a game (37 goals, 36 assists).
In his final two seasons, Lindros played 33 games with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2005-06 and 49 games with the Dallas Stars in 2006-07. Combined, Lindros put up just 16 goals and 32 assists over those two years before calling it a career, retiring at the age of 34.
A career cut short due to injuries, Lindros played 760 games in his 13 seasons in the National Hockey League. His numbers are still impressive to the eye when you consider his eight concussions and his degrading health during his final years. 865 points (372 goals, 493 assists) and a total of 1398 penalty minutes — a true power forward. His playoff numbers, despite never winning a Stanley Cup, are nothing to scoff at either; 57 points (24 goals, 33 assists) in 53 games.
His achievements do not pale in comparison either. Seven all-star nominations, including five in five years, in 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2002 — as mentioned above, Lindros was forced to pull out of the 2002 all-star game due to injury. His 1995-96 campaign stood as his best season statistically with career totals for goals (47), assists (68) and points (115) but his 1994-95 campaign led Lindros to a Hart Memorial Trophy, Lester B. Pearson Award and his second of four Bobby Clarke Trophies, which he also won in 1994, 1996 and 1999. In 1993, Lindros was also named to the NHL All-Rookie team.
Internationally, Lindros achieved major success every time he put on a Team Canada jersey. Appearing in three straight World Junior Championships back in 1990, 1991 and 1992, Lindros and Team Canada won two straight gold medals in 1990 and 1991. His total of 31 points over those three tournaments still makes Lindros the top-scoring Canadian in the tournament’s history. 1991 was also the year an 18 year old Lindros joined Canada, who were crowned champions in the Canada Cup, with Wayne Gretzky the tournament MVP. In 1993, Canada failed to medal at the World Hockey Championship tournament but Lindros led Canada in scoring. In his three Winter Olympic Games (1992, 1998 and 2002) Lindros has a Gold medal from 2002 and a silver medal from 1992 hanging in his trophy case.
As recently as this month, his list of achievements added yet another notch with the announcement that he, along with LeClair and Eric Desjardins, would be inducted into the Flyers Hall of Fame during the 2014-15 season. Lindros and LeClair will receive their ceremony before the game against the Minnesota Wild on November 20th, while Desjardins will get his before the game against the Buffalo Sabres on February 19th.
While the lack of a Stanley Cup and longevity issues would hurt someone’s chances in making the Hockey Hall of Fame, an exception can be made for Lindros. Some may even say Lindros should already be in there. His point totals alone, as well as what he did for the Philadelphia Flyers in the 90s, was one of the biggest storylines in the NHL. His achievements and accolades confirm what everyone already knows — Lindros was one of the greats of his time and arguably the best powerforward of his team… maybe ever. His behavior off the ice, not wanting to sign with teams that draft him and even on the ice, with recent stories circulating of a charity poster ripping incident, have left hockey fans with a soured opinion on Big E. Yet in the same breath, his $5 million dollar donation to the London Health Sciences Centre is one of the biggest personal donations by a sports figure from Canada and is often left out of the conversation when talking negatively about the man. Same goes for his participation in the Habitat for Humanity event, where Lindros helped built homes on Mother’s Day back in 2010.
Sure he’s met his fair share of low moments, both in hockey and outside of the sport, but Lindros has done so much good for the game and outside of it that it’s hard to count him out of the equation. After all, players don’t get left out of the Hall of Fame just because they didn’t want to play for a team. The Hall recognizes a player’s career in hockey, both on and off the ice and Lindros has done more good than bad in both situations. In fact, his career speaks for itself that Lindros has not just done good things, but great things because, whether you like him or you hate him, Eric Lindros is one of the greats of all time.
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