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Let's make a deal Flyers, Lindros camp to meet Wednesday
Updated: Tuesday June 12, 2001 3:07 AM
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Eric Lindros could sit out another year if he doesn't show some flexibility in negotiations, Philadelphia Flyers general manager Bob Clarke said Monday. Clarke, who said he plans to meet with Lindros lawyer Gordon Kirke in Toronto on Wednesday, said Lindros ought to show more willingness to play for teams other than the Toronto Maple Leafs. "He's built huge resistance to every other team in the league right now and if that doesn't change, it's likely that he won't be playing next year," Clarke said. Clarke said he also expected to meet with Carl Lindros, the father of the restricted free agent center who missed the entire season hoping for a trade from Philadelphia. Leafs GM Pat Quinn is returning from vacation this week and might meet with Carl Lindros as well. But team executive Bill Watters reportedly expressed no interest in Lindros on Monday night. "We have no plans to discuss anything with the Philadelphia Flyers or with the players on their reserve list," Watters told the Toronto Sun. "There is nothing [to talk about]." Eric Lindros said in November that he wanted to be traded to the Maple Leafs and no other team. In February, a trade between Toronto and Philadelphia fell through at the last minute, adding another chapter to the bitter feud between the Lindros family and the Flyers. Three days before the March 13 trade deadline, Lindros said he also would accept a trade to three other teams -- Detroit, Washington and St. Louis. The Blues were interested, even bringing in Lindros for a medical on the eve of the deadline, but eventually acquired Keith Tkachuk from Phoenix. Lindros, meanwhile, was upset when the Flyers failed to move him before the deadline. Carl Lindros said Monday that he wasn't sure if Toronto still was the only choice. "We'll have to wait and see," he said from Toronto. "We haven't met with Toronto yet. We've had some discussions but Quinn's been away. He's back this week, so it's going to be an interesting week." Kirke said there are a "finite" number of teams that can deal for Lindros, who rejected an $8.5 million qualifying offer from Philadelphia last summer. "Eric has expressed, and is prepared to assume, some of the risk," Kirke said. Clarke said he felt it was important to get Lindros trade talks going soon, since NHL free agency starts July 1 and several high-profile players will be available to the highest bidder. Clarke said he wants to get a defenseman and another center in trade for Lindros, but that it has to happen soon. "If free agency brings us what we need, then I don't know where Lindros is going to go, or if he's going to go anywhere at all," Clarke said. He said he has no qualms about trading Lindros to another team within the Flyers' division, even though that would mean his team would face Lindros. "We've never feared trading within our division. If we're doing what we feel helps the Flyers, we would trade Lindros anywhere," he said. But there's one team that Clarke said will never have Lindros on the ice -- the Flyers.
"He's pretty much burned all his bridges with this
organization, and I think we've probably burned our bridges with
him," Clarke said.
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