THE CANADIAN PRESS
The biggest beef some hockey fans had against Eric Lindros was their perception that he felt he was bigger than the sport.
Lindros refused to play for the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds after they selected him in the OHL draft and he would not report to the Quebec Nordiques after they made him the No. 1 pick in the NHL draft. That combination of no-shows soured some fans on Lindros for life.
Even as Lindros announced his retirement as an NHL player on Thursday, he remained misunderstood by some.
Lindros had nothing against northern Ontario. The family simply wanted to keep educational opportunities open, explains Gord Kirke, who represented Lindros for 10 years through 2001.
The Michigan Wolverines were wooing Lindros. Former NHL forward Red Berenson was an impressive head coach of a top-notch U.S. college program and all costs would be covered. The family decided that it would be unwise for the oldest son to leave the Toronto home in his mid-teens and relinquish the chance down the road to enrol at Michigan, which would happen the moment he skated in an OHL game, when there was no comparable schooling available in the Soo.
"Eric was torn," Kirke recalls. "His first preference from a developmental point of view was to play in the OHL but there was the lure of Michigan."
Lindros joined a Tier II junior team in the Detroit region instead of going to the Soo. He’d only play in the OHL if the Greyhounds could work out a trade with a team close to Toronto so he could continue living at home. The Oshawa Generals were eager to get him and a deal was arranged. Lindros led the Generals to the Memorial Cup championship.
When he was 18, and Quebec grabbed him in the NHL entry draft, he opted to play for Canada’s national team instead of reporting to the Nordiques. There was a furor in Quebec, and even the prime minister waded in on the issue.
"Eric was intrigued by the fact that both my kids had taken French immersion in school and I remember him commenting that he wished his ability to speak French was better," Kirke recalls. "Eric was not anti-Quebec or anti-French.
"When he declined to play for the Nordiques, the easiest conclusion was that he must be anti-French. Even (then prime minister) Brian Mulroney went on TV and said it was symbolic of everything that was wrong with Canada.
"But Eric felt that the owner of the Nordiques wasn’t committed to keeping the team in Quebec City. He had a sense that Marcel Aubut wasn’t committed to staying in Quebec and building a winning team."
The Nordiques eventually traded his rights for six players, two first-round draft picks and US$15 million, and Lindros wound up playing for the Philadelphia Flyers. It was an enormous amount to pay for any player, and most teens would have crumbled with the pressure of expectations.
"He handled it well," Kirke recalls. "There was relief at having the Quebec situation dealt with, especially because it had been badly understood, and also relief that he was moving on."
Sure enough, a few years later, Aubut sold the Nordiques and the franchise shifted to Denver where the team became known as the Colorado Avalanche.
