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Wednesday, February 7, 2001
Lindros continues to wait for trade
Associated Press
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PHILADELPHIA – Eric Lindros is doing just fine – and so is
his former team.
Despite not having Lindros or his former linemate John LeClair
for all but eight games, the Philadelphia Flyers were one point
behind the New Jersey Devils for first place in the Atlantic
Division at the All-Star break.
Lindros, a restricted free agent, is recovering from his sixth
concussion and continues to wait for the Flyers to trade his
rights.
"Eric is great," Carl Lindros, Eric's father and agent, said
Tuesday. "He skates four, five days a week. He's training. He's
fine."
Lindros said his son hasn't seen Dr. James Kelly since the
Chicago neurologist cleared the 27-year-old center to play in
November.
The former Flyers captain is prepared to sit out the season if
he's not dealt by the March 13 trade deadline. Gord Kirke, Lindros'
lawyer, has said his client is "focused exclusively" on playing
for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Carl Lindros would not discuss the Flyers or any trade
possibilities.
Philadelphia general manager Bob Clarke talked with Toronto
about Lindros, but was told by Flyers chairman Ed Snider to stop
negotiating with the Maple Leafs last month.
"Toronto offered us absolutely nothing for Eric," Snider said.
Clarke maintains the Flyers will not give Lindros away and
suggested the star center might have to wait four years to get his
wish of playing in his hometown.
"When he's 31 and an unrestricted free agent, he can do that –
if that team wants him," Clarke said recently. "To say at 27
years old, 'I'm only going to play in Toronto,' he might be sitting
... for four years."
Lindros hasn't played since Game 7 of the Eastern Conference
finals when a check by New Jersey's Scott Stevens left him with his
sixth concussion in just over two years. He had just returned after
a 2½-month absence because of postconcussion syndrome.
Lindros rejected an $8.5 million qualifying offer from
Philadelphia last summer and made it clear he will not return to
the Flyers because of a contentious relationship with Clarke. It
reached a point last season where the two men didn't speak for
months.
The boiling point came after Lindros criticized the team's
medical staff for failing to diagnose his second concussion of the
season on March 4.
Clarke then stripped Lindros of his captaincy, and the star was
ostracized from the team until he returned for Games 6 and 7 of the
conference finals against the Devils.
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