Eric Lindros
Eric Lindros is a retired Canadian professional ice hockey player, widely recognized for his exceptional skills and physical presence on the ice. Born on February 28, 1973, in London, Ontario, he was raised in a family that valued athleticism, leading him to pursue hockey from a young age. Lindros quickly distinguished himself in junior leagues, ultimately becoming a standout player in the Ontario Hockey League. He was the first overall pick in the 1991 NHL Draft, though he famously refused to play for the Quebec Nordiques, which set the stage for a high-profile trade to the Philadelphia Flyers.
Known for his combination of size, at 6 feet 4 inches and 235 pounds, and scoring prowess, Lindros earned several accolades, including the Hart Memorial Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player. He was a key player on the Flyers during the late 1990s, notably as part of the trio dubbed the "Legion of Doom." Unfortunately, his career was marred by multiple concussions and injuries, leading to an early retirement announcement in 2007.
Post-retirement, Lindros became an advocate for awareness around concussions and worked with the NHL Players' Association to improve player welfare. His contributions to the sport were recognized with his induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2016, and he received further honors, including the retirement of his jersey number by the Flyers. Lindros remains a respected figure in hockey, celebrated for both his on-ice accomplishments and his efforts off the ice.
Eric Lindros
- Born: February 28, 1973
- Place of Birth: London, Ontario, Canada
SPORT: Ice hockey
Early Life
Eric Bryan Lindros was born to Carl and Bonnie Lindros on February 28, 1973, in London, Ontario, Canada. Both parents achieved some success as amateur athletes and conveyed their love of sport and their competitive spirits to Lindros, his younger brother, Brett, and his sister, Robin. Lindros and his father practiced skating for hours throughout the Canadian winters on backyard ice rinks. When Lindros was six, his mother enrolled him in a noncontact hockey league, hoping to drain some of his excess energy. He quickly developed an appreciation for the complexity of the sport.
The Road to Excellence
Blessed with skill, determination, and size, Lindros often played in leagues with boys two years older than him. When he was fourteen, a year in which he grew 7 inches, he decided to become a professional hockey player. By 1989, he qualified to play in the Ontario Hockey League, a stepping-stone to the National Hockey League (NHL). However, when the Sault Sainte Marie Greyhounds drafted him, Lindros refused to report to a team so far from his home. In the fall of 1989, he finished high school and played in a league that was less competitive.
In early 1990, Lindros joined the Canadian national junior team, which competed for the junior world championship in Finland. He was the youngest player in the tournament, but he scored four goals in seven games to help Canada win the competition. He returned to discover that the Ontario Hockey League had changed its rules to let Lindros join the Oshawa Generals, closer to home. That spring, Oshawa captured the Memorial Cup, the championship of the Canadian Hockey League.
During the 1990–1 season, Lindros dominated the Ontario Hockey League and won the prestigious Canadian Hockey League Player of the Year Award. He was the obvious top choice for the NHL draft in June 1991. Lindros and his parents warned the Quebec Nordiques, who had the first pick, that he would not sign with them. He did not speak French, nor would he receive sufficient salary and recognition in Quebec. The Lindroses emphasized that the Nordiques’ owner was not committed to winning. Nevertheless, the Nordiques drafted him, and he refused to sign.
The Emerging Champion
While waiting for the Nordiques to capitulate to his demands and trade him, Lindros completed a remarkable amateur hockey career. In the 1991 World Junior Championships, he dominated the competition, scoring six goals and adding eleven assists in only seven games. The victory represented the first time Canada won back-to-back gold medals in that tournament. Later that year, he made Team Canada as an eighteen-year-old amateur, the youngest Canadian ever to compete against other nations for the Canada Cup. Playing against NHL stars, he scored three goals, had two assists, and delivered dozens of devastating body checks. Team Canada was victorious. In the 1992 Olympics, Lindros tallied five goals and six assists in eight games for the all-amateur squad, but the Unified Team of the former Soviet Union captured the gold.
Continuing the Story
On June 30, 1992, the Quebec Nordiques traded Lindros to two different teams. An arbitrator decided that the Philadelphia Flyers had obtained him. Philadelphia gave Quebec its starting goaltender, five other players, two first-round draft picks, and $15 million. The Flyers’ management knew that Lindros was the star around whom it could build a championship team.
Lindros missed two months of his first season with knee injuries, costing him the Calder Memorial Trophy as the top rookie. He still scored forty-one goals and had thirty-four assists, remarkable for a center on a next-to-last-place team.
The strike-shortened 1994–5 season did not stop Lindros’s rise. Only twenty-one, he became team captain and led the Flyers to the team’s first playoff appearance in five years. He won the Hart Memorial Trophy as the most valuable player. The following year, he scored 115 points and finished second to Mario Lemieux for the Hart Trophy.
In 1996–7, the forward line of Lindros, John LeClair, and Mikael Renberg, nicknamed the “Legion of Doom,” led the Flyers to the Stanley Cup Finals. The three players supplied a physical presence and scoring punch that few teams could match. Lindros led all scorers in the playoffs. In the finals, however, the talented Detroit Red Wings stopped the Legion, and the Flyers lost in four straight games. Late in the next season, Lindros scored his 500th point; only four players had achieved that goal in fewer games. He was only twenty-five years old, but he was named captain of the Canadian team for the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.
On March 7, 1998, Darius Kasparaitis of the Pittsburgh Penguins checked Lindros so hard that the latter suffered a serious concussion. A year later, a freak injury during a game in Nashville sent him to the hospital with a collapsed and bleeding lung. The life-threatening condition kept him out of the playoffs and prevented him from achieving another 100-point season.
Physical problems continued to plague Lindros’s career. In the last half of the 1999–2000 season, he suffered three more concussions. He rejoined the Flyers during the third round of the playoffs, but on May 26, 2000, a vicious hit by an opponent knocked him unconscious. Many feel that his career as an elite player ended with that concussion. Although healthy enough to play by November 2000, he was determined to change teams because of strained relations with Flyers’ management. After he sat out the entire 2000–1 season, the Flyers traded him to the New York Rangers in August 2001.
In 2001–2, Lindros enjoyed a productive season with seventy-three points. His production decreased dramatically in the following two seasons with the Rangers and one with the Toronto Maple Leafs, and he suffered his eighth concussion. In his final season, 2006–7, he played for the Dallas Stars, but he scored only five goals. On November 8, 2007, he announced his retirement.
The preceding summer, Lindros had begun working with the NHL Player’s Association. He was instrumental in choosing a new executive director to address the incompetence and corruption that hampered the union’s leadership. On November 11, 2007, he was appointed the NHL Players’ Association ombudsman. Players praised his efforts to make the union’s activities transparent and to help the NHL overcome the lingering negative feelings from the 2004–5 lockout season. He also spoke out against violent aspects of hockey, such as checks to the head.
Almost ten years after Lindros retired from the game, during which time he settled down with his family and continued to advocate for concussion awareness, he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame on November 14, 2016. In 2017, Lindros was named one of the 100 best NHL players in history, and in 2018, the Flyers retired his number 88 Jersey. In 2023, Lindros was made a Member of the Order of Ontario. While he still participates in casual pickup games with friends, he is no longer professionally involved in hockey.
Summary
Bobby Clarke, a Hockey Hall of Famer, concluded that at the age of sixteen, Eric Lindros was ready for the NHL. He had a quick and hard wrist shot, and he was a graceful yet powerful skater. At 6 feet 4 inches and 235 pounds, he was difficult for opponents to control. Known as the “Big E,” “Captain Crunch,” and the “E-Train,” he delivered checks that left opponents dazed and intimidated. His skillful passing made the “Legion of Doom” a scoring machine. Despite his final seasons, he averaged a remarkable 1.14 points per game during his career.
Lindros’s refusal to play for Sault Sainte Marie and Quebec led to accusations of arrogance. He contradicted those claims through his willingness to represent his country in numerous international events, gaining his teammates’ respect, and working for the Children’s Miracle Network. He gave $5 million to the Health Science Center in London, Ontario, which is believed to have been the largest contribution by an athlete in Canada up to that point. Only injuries limited his achievements in the NHL.
Bibliography
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Greenberg, Jay. Full Spectrum: The Complete History of the Philadelphia Flyers. Triumph Books, 1997.
Kennedy, Kostya. “Eric Lindros: Worthy of the Hall?” Sports Illustrated, 19 Nov. 2007, vault.si.com/vault/2007/11/19/eric-lindros-worthy-of-the-hall. Accessed 30 Mar. 2017.
Lindros, Eric. Pursue Your Goals. Taylor, 1999.
Lindros, Eric, and Randy Starkman. Fire on Ice. HarperCollins, 1991.
Poulin, Daniel. Lindros: Doing What’s Right for Eric. Panda, 1992.
Rush, Curtis. "Eric Lindros Is Entering the Hall of Fame. His Legacy Isn't Just Hockey." The New York Times, 14 Nov. 2016, www.nytimes.com/2016/11/14/sports/hockey/eric-lindros-hall-of-fame.html. Accessed 7 June 2024.
Savage, Jeff. Eric Lindros: High Flying Center. Lerner, 1998.