|
|
 |
 |   |
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Video Plus Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities 
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
|  |
In a New York minute Eager Lindros would play for Rangers to get deal done
Updated: Thursday July 05, 2001 1:16 AM
TORONTO (AP) -- Eric Lindros has added the New York Rangers to the list of teams he will play for. The 28-year-old Lindros, a restricted free agent who sat out last season, has sought a trade since rejecting an $8.5 million qualifying offer from the Flyers last summer. The former All-Star center was convinced to expand his list after talking with Rangers general manager Glen Sather on Thursday. "We've been talking to the Rangers throughout," Gord Kirke, Lindros' lawyer, said Wednesday. "Whatever was said between Eric and Glen Sather was sufficient to enable Glen Sather to say that he was going to have a talk with [Philadelphia Flyers GM] Bob Clarke and see if he could get something going with Bob Clarke." Lindros' decision comes as potential suitors St. Louis and Detroit made other high-profile additions to their rosters and as another missed season begins to seem very possible. Missing the start of the season would likely cost Lindros a spot on the Canadian Olympic team for the 2002 Games. The Rangers, thus far shut out in the free-agency market, have long desired Lindros. Until now, Lindros has been steadfast in rejecting Sather's courtship because he doesn't want to anger Flyers fans. "Throughout this that has been a major concern of Eric's," Kirke said of his client playing for the Flyers' Atlantic Division rival. "That is still something about which he has great reluctance and great discomfort. "Eric wants to play in the National Hockey League and if Clarke tells him that is his only chance to play, then he's got to get by it." The main obstacle to Lindros' return to the NHL remains Clarke, who has demanded equal value in any deal for the restricted free agent. Lindros' history of concussions has some teams worried about his durability. With the Rangers desperately needing to add an impact player to their lineup, a deal should come easier than with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Lindros' preferred destination. "[Clarke] has consistently said that he thought the Rangers was a good bet, something to look at," Kirke said. "He has been encouraging us to look at the Rangers for some time." When he declared himself fit to play in November, Lindros said he would play only for the Maple Leafs. The Leafs and Flyers came close to a deal on a couple of occasions, but the potential trades fell apart at the last minute, triggering angry recriminations between Toronto GM Pat Quinn and Clarke. When the Leafs and Flyers were unable to agree on a deal, Lindros added the Blues, Red Wings and Washington Capitals as possible destinations. The Dallas Stars also have tried to recruit the 6-foot-4, 236-pound Lindros, but have been rebuffed. Lindros hasn't played since a check from New Jersey's Scott Stevens in Game 7 of the 2000 Eastern Conference finals gave him his sixth concussion 13 months ago. Lindros scored 290 goals and had 369 assists in 486 games in eight seasons with the Flyers. Philadelphia has signed free-agent center Jeremy Roenick to a five-year, $37.5 million deal. If the Rangers do make a deal for Lindros, it would be the second time they traded for him. After Lindros refused to play for the Quebec Nordiques, who had made him the No. 1 overall pick in the 1991 entry draft, both the Flyers and Rangers claimed to have made a deal to acquire him in 1992.
The NHL appointed an independent arbitrator, Toronto lawyer Larry Bertuzzi, to decide the issue and he awarded Lindros to Philadelphia.
| |||||||||||||||||||||
