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Friday, November 3, 2000
LeClair, Flyers settle in for showdown
By Rob Parent
Special to ESPN.com
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From the hype to the hysteria, in the eyes of the network cameras and on
the salary charts, John LeClair has always played second banana to Eric
Lindros in Philadelphia.
Now, with Lindros' image removed from everything but
the team's inactive player charts, LeClair has picked up where his former
Legion of Doom linemate left off: In a dispute with management that has turned critical.
With LeClair clearly calling the shots, the Flyers are working with the knowledge that a very short time separates them from an unwanted divorce with one of their most talented and popular players -- one not named
Lindros.
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Essentially, LeClair's deadline represents nothing short of a trade demand. Scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent July 1, he hardened his stance this week by informing club chairman Ed Snider that if a deal isn't struck now, he will not seek employment with the Flyers after the season. ” |
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— ESPN.com's Rob Parent |
Although LeClair is prepared to work under an independently arbitrated contract
award of $7 million for this season, he has told the Flyers' top brass
that if a long-term contract isn't agreed upon by Sunday night, all talks
will cease and he'll become a lame duck Flyers franchise player.
"I don't want it to be a distraction. That's first and foremost," LeClair
said Thursday afternoon. "We've had enough distractions around this team the
last year or so. The last thing I want to do is be a part of that. There's
been ample time to sign a deal. If it doesn't get done by (Sunday night),
then it's time to move on."
Essentially, LeClair's deadline represents nothing short of a trade
demand. Scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent July 1, he hardened
his stance this week by informing club chairman Ed Snider that if a deal
isn't struck now, he will not seek employment with the Flyers after the
season.
Considering the parties remain far apart in negotiations, a fast
resolution doesn't seem likely. And with LeClair's considerable value -- in
the past five years, he's compiled 235 regular season goals -- club president
Bob Clarke would have no choice but to auction off LeClair to the highest
trading partner.
|  | | LeClair's days in Philly might be numbered. The question is: Will Lindros and LeClair end up on the same team again? |
Not that it seems to faze this latest Philadelphia powder keg personality. LeClair seems unconcerned about short-circuiting his career in Philadelphia and that has surprised both fans and the club's war-weary management. Speculation ranges from the obvious -- he wants more money -- to the oblivious -- he doesn't really think he's worth $10 million a year, does he?
"I've been around the league long enough to know that there are always
lots of rumors. If you're going to get traded, it's going to happen. It's
something you can't control. I've been hearing rumors all summer. They don't
bother me."
Though details about the negotiations are strictly on the QT, management
sources indicate LeClair is seeking a long-term deal that would call
for an average salary over and above what agent Lewis Gross pushed for at the
arbitration hearing -- $9 million bucks a year.
Gross' angle is that LeClair is seeking to be fairly compensated
for something he's worked for his whole career -- that golden idol of
unrestricted free agency. Clarke's take on the situation is LeClair should be more like
Mark Recchi, who blinked at pending unrestricted free agency last year, then
promptly signed a five-year, $25 million commitment to the Flyers.
"We wouldn't be trying to sign John if we didn't think he wanted to stay," Clarke said. "It's what every player wants, to get to the point of being an unrestricted free agent. The difference between John and the majority of
other players in that group is he's already been offered a huge amount of
money. More than any of us would ever hope to make."
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Clarke on Lindros
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In hockey time, a couple of days in Philadelphia equate to a month's worth
of controversy anywhere else. So while biding his time with LeClair talks
that are going nowhere, Clarke found time to engage in a favorite pastime:
offering his opinion on Eric Lindros.
"Every time his parents got involved it became a distraction," Clarke said
just hours prior to that failed Wednesday session with LeClair. "Every little
injury became bigger than what it was; bigger than the team. I think it
caused Eric all kinds of embarrassment. But now we just want to play hockey.
We don't need all that kind of crap around anymore."
Surprise, surprise.
Any team that trades for Lindros -- if he's healthy enough by midseason to
resume his career -- might be interested in paying major bucks for old buddy
LeClair next summer. But then, it's up to Clarke whether Lindros is able to
join another team or not.
"He's a (restricted) free agent. He can talk to anybody he wants," Clarke
said of Lindros, who continues to recover from post-concussion syndrome but
prefers to do so without public comments. "I don't think anybody's going to
sign him without talking to us. We would have the right to match or take
compensation, and I don't think that's likely to happen."
Clarke also feels a Lindros trade will be difficult, even if he receives
clearance to play from his doctors in January, as anticipated.
"I don't think I'm going to wake up one morning and someone's going to
phone me and say, 'Hey, let's make a deal for Lindros.' It'll be a long, slow
process, I'm sure," said Clarke. "But if we get what we think we deserve for
him, we'll trade ? Will somebody want to trade for him? Are they (the
Lindros family) going to ask for $8.5 million? I don't know. We might be the only
place he's got to play if nobody wants to trade for him. But our team will
still play good. We're not going to roll over and die because Eric Lindros
isn't here."
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So there is LeClair, he of the inflated salary demand thought to be
nearly $2 million above what the Flyers are willing to pay, setting a
deadline on talks that were described by both sides as "amicable, but
unproductive."
"In my mind, it seems like a lot of these things get done at the last
minute," said LeClair. "When you're negotiating a contract, you have to do
things and make decisions as far as negotiations are concerned. That's one of
the decisions I made about this. I felt that between all of last year to be
able to sign a long-term deal and all summer and now, there's been ample time
for me to be able to stay with the Flyers."
So, that was it then? Annoyed that Clarke didn't bother to start
discussing contract until shortly before his arbitration hearing, LeClair
decided once and for all to get down and dirty?
Could be.
Or is it more the pushing of Gross to make up for LeClair's first Flyers
deal, which was hailed in all corners of the globe as one of hockey's most
undervalued contracts?
Possibly.
Perhaps it has more to do with another popular conspiracy theory, that
LeClair doesn't care whether Bob Clarke trades him or not, because he's
committed to becoming an unrestricted free agent in July, and prefers to sign
with a team that risks a trade for ... yup, you got it ... Eric Lindros.
Does anyone believe LeClair really wouldn't rather be in
Philadelphia?
"I'd say that not true," LeClair did say. "Anytime you're negotiating
there's things and tactics that you have to try to do to get things done.
Look at the other side; GMs always do that for guys that don't have a
contract. They say, 'If you don't come to camp by a certain day or take an
offer, then we're going to trade you.' Deadlines are what make things get
done a lot of times, and that's what we felt was necessary to get anything
done here."
In response to LeClair's use of the magic deadline bullet in these talks,
Clarke issued this response: "We won't be sitting by the phone at midnight
(Sunday), that's for sure. If the deal isn't done, we'll know."
In the end, it must be difficult for Snider and Clarke to think that the team they worked so hard
and spent so much money on to build now stands to lose what used to be its
two main playing pillars in the same season. But considering how closely
allied Lindros and LeClair have been on the ice since 1995, and how their own
personal friendship has blossomed in recent years, it can't be surprising
that LeClair might want to continue that magic elsewhere, if possible.
Philly's old Legion finally seems doomed.
Rob Parent covers the NHL for the Delaware County (Pa.) Times. His NHL East column appears every week on ESPN.com.
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ALSO SEE
No deal at deadline, but LeClair's agent, Flyers agree to continue talks
Lindros' absence a hard reality
Stevens' second chance in Philly
Training Camp capsule: Philadelphia Flyers
Flyers and LeClair unproductive in first contract meeting
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