#74 - Eric Lindros

Eric Lindros (Murillo Pyramid Rank = #74)

Adjusted Stats

1992-1993   Phi          60 GP   34 goals   28 assists   62 points    1.04 PPG
1993-1994   Phi          63 GP   41 goals   49 assists   90 points    1.42 PPG
1994-1995   Phi          79 GP   51 goals   72 assists   123 points  1.57 PPG
1995-1996   Phi          73 GP   46 goals   66 assists   112 points  1.54 PPG
1996-1997   Phi          52 GP   34 goals   50 assists   83 points    1.60 PPG
1997-1998   Phi          63 GP   35 goals   48 assists   83 points    1.31 PPG
1998-1999   Phi          71 GP   47 goals   62 assists   109 points  1.53 PPG
1999-2000   Phi          55 GP   30 goals   36 assists   66 assists   1.20 PPG
2001-2002   NYR        72 GP   43 goals   42 assists   86 points    1.19 PPG
2002-2003   NYR        81 GP   22 goals   39 assists   61 points    0.76 PPG
2003-2004   NYR        39 GP   12 goals   26 assists   38 points    0.98 PPG
2005-2006   Tor         33 GP   11 goals   11 assists   22 points    0.68 PPG
2006-2007   Dal         49 GP   5 goals     22 assists   28 points    0.57 PPG

Adjusted Playoff Stats

1994-1995   Phi          12 GP   4 goals    10 assists    13 points    1.10 PPG
1995-1996   Phi          12 GP   6 goals    6 assists      11 points    0.96 PPG
1996-1997   Phi          19 GP   13 goals  15 assists    27 points    1.44 PPG
1997-1998   Phi          5 GP      1 goal     2 assists      3 points      0.67 PPG
1999-2000   Phi          2 GP      1 goal     0 assists      1 point       0.60 PPG
2006-2007   Dal         3 GP       0 goals   0 assists      0 points     0.00 PPG

Career - 790 GP, 411 goals, 551 assists, 963 points, 1.22 PPG
Career-Highs - 51 goals (94-95); 72 assists (94-95); 123 points (94-95); 1.60 PPG (96-97)
Avg. (13 seasons) - 61 GP, 32 goals, 42 assists, 74 points, 1.22 PPG
Peak Avg. (93-02) - 66 GP, 41 goals, 53 assists, 94 points, 1.42 PPG, 0 Cups

Playoff Career - 53 GP, 25 goals, 33 assists, 55 points, 1.04 PPG
Playoff-Highs - 13 goals (96-97); 15 assists (96-97); 27 points (96-97); 1.44 PPG (96-97)

Accolades - 1 MVP Award
All-Star Teams - 1-time 1st-team, 1-time 2nd-team
Never Won Stanley Cup

Lindros is even more of a case of "what could have been" than Peter Forsberg, because in Forsberg's case, there is at least a pretty healthy dose of "what was". If you were making a list of the twenty greatest centers of all-time, Forsberg would make it...it's debatable whether Lindros would, although Lindros would certainly make the list of the twenty (perhaps even ten) most talented centers.

From the beginning, Lindros' career had a dark aura around it. He became the poster-child for petulant young athletes when he refused to play for the Quebec Nordiques, who had drafted him, sat out a year, and eventually was traded to the Philadelphia Flyers (in a fleecing that set the stage for the great Avalanche teams of the late-1990s...for Lindros, the Nordiques got cash, Mike Ricci, future draft picks, role players who would then later be part of the Patrick Roy acquisition, and a Swedish prospect named Peter Forsberg). He appeared coddled by his parents and was generally labeled as a "big baby" early in his career, a label that would never really shed.

Unlike Forsberg, Lindros was a natural goal-scorer: he tore through opponents and would crash toward the net, and he possessed one of the most lethal slap shots I've seen. Check out Lindros' numbers during his peak average: 41 goals a season in an average of only 66 games per year, an incredible ratio. For that matter, his PPG during that period is the seventh-best all-time, behind only the following names: Gretzky, Lemieux, Jagr, Esposito, Orr, Howe.

Ah, but the thing with Lindros is he was always injured. Forsberg may have fallen off the map late in his career, missing a season and then barely being able to muster 60 games, but for the first five years of his career he was essentially quite healthy. Whereas Lindros was perenially missing ten, fifteen, twenty games a season. It's telling that Lindros' career year was 1994-1995. You may look at the totals and think "wait, I don't remember Lindros playing 79 games and scoring 123 points", and you'd be right...because those are the adjusted stats for the 48-game season that was shortened by the lockout. Who knows if Lindros would have finally been healthy that year, but at least for the season that was available to him, that was the year Lindros put together the MVP campaign everyone expected of him.

In 1997, it seemed as if Lindros' time had finally come. The Flyers had been powered to the Stanley Cup finals by Lindros, and were heavily favoured to beat the Detroit Red Wings. But they came up with a dud of an effort, getting swept in forgettable fashion, and Lindros was nowhere to be found. This team failure would continue with Canada's 4th-place finish in Nagano, with Lindros as captain taking the brunt of the blame (that is, the blame not directed toward the shootout format or to Marc Crawford for not letting Gretzky take a shootout shot). Did Lindros not have it in him to win the big one?

It seemed inevitable that the Flyers, who were perennial contenders, would get a Cup, especially when they were up 3-1 on the New Jersey Devils in the Eastern Conference finals and appeared headed back to the Cup finals. Then came "the hit", from Scott Stevens, a defining moment for me as a Devils fan, and essentially the end of Lindros' career as we knew it. Although Lindros came back after missing a full season and actually enjoyed a productive first season with the Rangers, after that you could tell he was nervous about suffering more concussions (which, by the way, he did). In 2002-2003, Lindros actually played 81 games out of 82, but the Lindros we knew was gone: he wasn't recklessly physical, hitting everything in sight, and he scored a paltry 61 points.

Stints with the Maple Leafs and Stars did nothing to revive his career, and at the end of 2007 Lindros finally announced his retirement. Asked if he would do anything differently throughout his career, Lindros gave a hilarious but piercingly true answer: "Learn to skate with my head up". I get the feeling that Lindros will be remembered as a bust, and certainly there is failure attached to his career, considering he never led his team to any championships. But we shouldn't forget how dominant Lindros was when he was in his twenties, and how, despite his constant injuries, he was consistently one of the most untradeable players in the NHL when he was at his peak. He was touted as the next Gretzky, the next Howe, the next Lemieux...he wasn't those things. But you know you've made an impact when, if a player comes into the league, dominates for a few years, and then has their career derailed by concussions and other injuries, he's referred to as "another Lindros".