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 Wednesday, May 31
Snider: Lindros will be healthy enough to play
 
 Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA -- Eric Lindros' career with the Philadelphia Flyers may not be over after all.

Eric Lindros
Lindros

Flyers chairman Ed Snider said Wednesday the team plans to re-sign Lindros, who can become a restricted free agent on July 1.

Lindros sustained his fourth concussion in five months and sixth in just over two years in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals last Friday.

"We believe Eric will be healthy and will be able to play hockey," Snider said in a television interview.

Asked if the Flyers plan to sign Lindros and keep him in Philadelphia, Snider said, "Of course."

The Flyers must tender Lindros a qualifying offer of $8.5 million -- equal to this year's salary -- to prevent him from becoming an unrestricted free agent.

Lindros' medical history coupled with his tense relationship with management made it seem unlikely the Flyers would make the offer.

Lindros, appearing somber and depressed at a news conference on Monday, is contemplating retirement or sitting out up to a full season.

If he retires before July 1, the Flyers retain his rights. If he retires after July 1, the Flyers would retain his rights only if they make the qualifying offer.

"I don't know what the future holds," Lindros said Monday, less than three days after his latest concussion knocked him out of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Lindros returned to his home in Toronto on Tuesday to undergo further treatment for his concussion. Neither Lindros nor his father and agent, Carl Lindros, could immediately be reached for comment.

The 27-year-old former captain indicated he would like to return to Philadelphia, but said, "I don't think that's my decision."

General manager Bob Clarke has a major role in making that decision, but Clarke's relationship with Lindros deteriorated this season.

After Lindros criticized the team's medical staff for failing to diagnose his second concussion on March 4, Clarke stripped the star center of his captaincy.

The two haven't spoken in months, and Clarke shunned Lindros when he encountered him in a corridor at the team's practice site Monday.

"I think Bob Clarke has taken a bad rap in this whole thing because Eric felt certain things happened and he and his agent-father were angry at Bob Clarke. Bob Clarke's never been angry at Eric," Snider said. "They speak when they have to speak. They're not warm buddies because Eric, I guess, has made it known that he's not too happy with Bob Clarke."

Lindros was playing in his second game after a 10-week absence due to postconcussion syndrome when Scott Stevens took him out with a thunderous hit early in the New Jersey's 2-1 victory Friday that sent the Devils to the Stanley Cup finals.

"The real problem with concussions is that nobody can give you a definitive answer so, at some point, we're just going to have to make a decision ourselves as to what we believe," Snider said on Comcast SportsNet, which is owned by the Flyers.

Lindros' younger brother, Brett, retired from the NHL in 1996 after three concussions with the New York Islanders and an undetermined number of concussions in juniors.

 


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