He's the quietly perturbed rich kid in a candy store – hungry to satisfy his needs, with more money than most everybody else to do it with, yet unable to gain permission to spend.
|  | | The Leafs reportedly offered Sergei Berezin for Eric Lindros. The Flyers reportedly rejected it. |
Bob Clarke knows he won't get what he wants, for holding the key to his March spending spree is another rich kid harboring a grudge. He's a kid who always has managed to get what he asked for, and would rather make Clarke and his Philadelphia Flyers pay rather than go somewhere else to play.
To expatriate Eric Lindros, it never has made any sense to play anywhere other than where he deemed fit. He believed it as the most talented kid on the block, presumed it as the most hyped teenager in a hockey-crazed nation, acted on it as the first selection in the 1991 NHL entry draft.
So nearly 10 years, eight mostly disappointing seasons and some six concussions later, this other rich kid still believes in going his own way rather than hitting the highway. Why change now?
Bob wants to trade Eric, but Pat won't give him enough, so Bob wants to trade him somewhere else, but Eric won't sign anywhere but with the Maple Leafs, so all Bob can do is sit and watch time tick toward the trading deadline, knowing his team doesn't stand a chance unless it gets another good defenseman or center.
Nah-na-na-na-na-nah.
"I don't know how sitting out a year is an indication that he wants to play," Clarke said of Lindros, the unsigned restricted free agent with the concussion history who has been cleared medically for two months, but has played pick-up hockey only. "If we're not going to trade him to Toronto this year, we might not trade him next year, either. How the hell are we going to trade him next year, or trade him this summer?"
Clarke asked this rhetorical question with the presumed belief that he won't be able to trade Lindros to the chosen ones (the Maple Leafs), either directly or through a third team. In expressing that view again Tuesday, Clarke indirectly confirmed that he has had recent talks with old friend Pat Quinn, the Toronto general manager and head coach, concerning Lindros.
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If we're not going to trade him to Toronto this year, we might not trade him next year, either. How the hell are we going to trade him next year, or trade him this summer? ” |
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— Bob Clarke, Philadelphia general manager |
This, despite a public decree by Flyers chairman Ed Snider a month ago that all talks with the Maple Leafs would end. No one is bothering to say how they resumed or by whom, because all the hot air between Quinn and Clarke hasn't sparked anything of value.
Just the usual amount of gas.
"He's pulled his power play and it's not worked," said Clarke, referring to Lindros' pronouncement that he'll only sign a contract with the Leafs. "It's time for him to say he'll go wherever he's traded; wherever we can make the best deal. If you're a hockey player, you have to play hockey. You can't sit on your rear end just hoping you'll get to where you want to go."
Tell that to Lindros, who's preparing to celebrate birthday No. 28 later this month by trying to get his body back into youthful condition. He's working out, he's practicing at a rink at York University, he's spacing his photo ops and interviews and spicing them with generous reminders that he may be more than three years away from unrestricted free agency, but the leverage is his just the same.
Same as it ever was.
Pausing long enough for effect in front of a microphone at a charity function in Toronto last week, Lindros said Clarke would do the right thing and trade him to the Leafs "if he wants to help his team out."
True enough, the Flyers could use the help. This is a team that has overachieved under replacement coach Bill Barber. They are a solid four-seed in the Eastern Conference. And guess who happens to be fifth? That same Toronto team Clarke refuses to deal with, the same Maple Leafs who come to First Union Center on Thursday night as a stark reminder of just how close the two cities and two teams are.
So why would you send Lindros to such nearby haunting grounds?
"To me it's all so foolish, because Toronto and Philly are not going to be able to make a deal. I know Pat pretty well, and he's not going to change his opinion," said Clarke, a close associate of Quinn's when they were star player and successful coach in Philly. "If there was a way for the two of us to get together and put something together, we'd have been able to find it. But our opinions are so different, there's just no chance."
Asked if he thought Lindros was healthy enough now to come back and play at a high level for a long time, Clarke said, "Absolutely. There's no doubt in my mind that he will – if he wants to play."
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The Flyers are a solid four-seed in the Eastern Conference. And guess who happens to be fifth? That same Toronto team Clarke refuses to deal with, the same Maple Leafs who come to First Union Center on Thursday night as a stark reminder of just how close the two cities and two teams are. |
Don't get Clarke wrong. He seems very sincere in his attempts to trade Lindros. He has strong interest in defensemen Rob Blake and Eric Weinrich, two players scheduled for unrestricted free agency in July who could be traded by the March 13 deadline. And he'd love to convince Buffalo to swing a deal for unsigned captain Michael Peca, the prototype two-way center who, along with Blake, is a premier player that might be available at the deadline.
Considering the Flyers are crossing their fingers in the hope that John LeClair returns from his horrid back woes in time for the playoffs and they don't have anyone capable of manning the point on the power play except Eric Desjardins, any of the above acquisitions wouldn't only do but they could be deemed necessary.
And yet, Clarke says he's not considering trading any of his "young pros," a group that includes Simon Gagne and rookies Justin Williams and Ruslan Fedotenko.
"These kids are just getting started," said Clarke. "And the teams that inquire about your players naturally want to give one of their old guys … it doesn't make any sense to me. But our biggest priority is if we can trade Lindros, we'll get something in return. Then it'll make it easier if we have to do anything else."
In Clarke's opinion, however, Quinn hasn't shown genuine interest in acquiring Lindros. Like the Flyers, the Leafs are in desperate straits defensively. They, too, would like to strike a bargain for Blake. Despite an ongoing silent push by Toronto owner Steve Stavro and omnipresent parental agent Carl Lindros, Toronto's rumored offers for Lindros have been substandard.
This week's special: Sergei Berezin and a first-round pick for the rights to Lindros. How's that for a bellyful?
"No truth to it," Clarke said. "I haven't talked to them in at least a week, maybe longer."
Ah ... more gas.
But whether the talks that have continued unabated – albeit sporadically – between Clarke and Quinn have kicked around names like Berezin, or last week's rumor of Yanic Perreault and Cory Cross, or last month's rumor of Jonas Hoglund and Danny Markov ... they hold one common and annoying denominator.
It's just not enough.
Whether Eric Lindros' return happens shortly after his 28th birthday or takes until July 1 of his 31st year, he won't be the fog-headed kid who left Philadelphia on a Scott Stevens-constructed slab.
He will be healthy of head and hungry of heart, ready, willing and able to put Philadelphia and its hard-headed hockey executive in their places. The perturbed older kid in GM garb would never admit to it, but he knows that is very possible. So is it any wonder Clarke wants fair value for this trading treasure?
But not trading Eric to Toronto means no permissible bargaining chips for any of two or three potentially available players who could turn the Flyers from overachievers to contenders this spring season.
Not very satisfying, is it?
Rob Parent covers the NHL for the Delaware County (Pa.) Times. He is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.
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