Eric Lindros – Toronto Maple Leafs and the Shocking Non-Trade
By Jeff Borsuk
August 11, 2005, was a special day. The Toronto Maple Leafs acquired one of the best to ever lace up a pair of skates, Eric Lindros. It only happened years after a mega trade fell through that would have brought the two sides together.
16 years ago today, the Toronto Maple Leafs were able to add the legend and Hall of Famer, Eric Lindros. What remains from that time is only a sad reminder of what could have been, including a trade that the Maple Leafs thought was done.
We will cover Lindros’s career, his medical history, his falling out with the Flyers, the trade that everyone in the hockey world thought was complete, and finally, what happened when he joined the Leafs.
For those that aren’t familiar with Lindros, he was dominant. Picture LeBron James on ice. Lindros was a big body at 6’4” 240 pounds who had no problem plowing through his opponents. He used his excellent skating to beat players to the puck and his physicality to flatten them on the glass.
The centerman was also a prolific scorer. He had four seasons where he registered over 40 goals and was in the NHL’s top 10 for goals scored four times. He was also in the top 10 in assists three times. In each of his first nine seasons, he was better than a point a game. In short, Lindros was remarkable.
Surprisingly, Lindros’s best season wasn’t 1994-95 when he was named a First Team All-Star and won both the Hart Trophy and the Ted Lindsay Award. That season, he recorded 29 goals and 41 assists for a total of 70 points in just 46 games. That was a pace of 1.52 points per game. As good as that was, his best season was one year later.
At age 22, in 1995-96, Lindros registered an outstanding 115 points in 73 games. He scored 47 goals and had 68 assists. That was an impressive 1.58 points per game. For comparison’s sake, Auston Matthews’s best points per game average was 1.27, which he had this past season.
When the Toronto Maple Leafs came inches from swinging a deal for Lindros and when they signed him to play at age 32, he had already had multiple concussions, which significantly limited his games played. Sadly, he was on the receiving end of some crushing blows. (stats hockeydb.com).