The drafting of Lindros, holdout, trade rumours and subsequent trade to Philadelphia (and New York) at the 1992 Draft has always been a favorite research subject of mine.
I’ve always been particularly interested in the many trade packages that Quebec had on the table during this time. Teams were willing to trade multiple star level players, and weighing the many offers must have caused many sleepless nights in the Quebec front office.
Many of the speculated offers have been discussed over the years, but Doug MacLean’s new book “Draft Day” includes a chapter dedicated to this and there is some information within that I didn’t know - and I have researched Lindros and his pre-NHL days extensively throughout the years. Doug spoke with Pierre Page while writing the book and gives some pretty nice insight.
Quebec thought they still had a shot to sign Eric right up until their last meeting with him at some point in early 1992. They brought in Guy Lafleur, who really thought he would have a big impact on Eric, as a last ditch effort to convince him to sign. After the meeting, Guy was alleged to be highly insulted and shocked. He told the Nordiques that there was “no way” Eric would ever play a single game for Quebec. That meeting, and the fact that Eric even turned down a 10-year $50 million contract, sealed the deal that they were going to have to move him.
Pretty much every team in the league was alleged to be interested in making a deal, but according to the book there were 14 serious packages on the table. As the 1992 Draft approached, the Nords rented the entire fifth floor of the Hyatt Hotel in Montreal and brought in a five-star chef and security guards. Management slept in shifts to make sure someone was always fresh for trade talks.
Page lists the following three teams as Eric’s preferred destinations if he had his way:
1. Chicago
2. Toronto
3. New York Rangers
He apparently didn’t want to go to Los Angeles, but a reason wasn’t given.
Now, here are a few of the offers that were on the table according to Page:
Montreal:
Page says Serge Savard and Patrick Roy didn’t get along, and Serge was ready to move on from him by this point. But they didn’t agree to the trade because they had “other good offers on the table.”
Patrick Roy
Guy Carbonneau
Eric Desjardins
Mike McPhee
Sylvain Lefebvre
Craig Darby
Jim Campbell
Toronto:
Page and Fletcher met at 3:30am one morning in the days leading to the draft and discussed Lindros for multiple hours. Page says Toronto had an “incredible” offer on the table but that it “wasn’t as good as the other ones.” According to Page, Cliff started getting cold feet and told him that he was very nervous as he felt the trade package was “too much.” Page says Cliff felt extra pressure since Toronto was one of the three teams the Lindros camp preferred as a destination.
Doug Gilmour
Wendel Clark
Felix Potvin
Dave Ellett
Ken Baumgartner
Darby Hendrickson
Draft Picks
$15 million
for
Eric Lindros
4th overall in ‘92
John Tanner
Stephane Fiset
Andrei Kovalenko
Calgary:
According to Page, the Flames made a very strong offer but ended up changing their mind soon afterwards and the potential deal was off.
The deal, according to Page, would have included Joe Nieuwendyk, Gary Suter, Mike Vernon, plus additional pieces.
St. Louis
The Blues had a package of players on the table that was centered around Brendan Shanahan and Brian Sutter among others.
Edit: He must have meant Ron Sutter. Brian was coaching the team by this point!
Detroit:
Doug MacLean was an assistant coach with the Wings during this time, so he’s able to offer some interesting insight on the trade talks with the Wings.
Detroit’s first offer that was tabled included:
Steve Yzerman
Martin Lapointe
Gerard Gallant
Steve Chiasson
Mike Sillinger
Yves Racine
$15 million
The Nordiques were adamant that they wanted Sergei Fedorov in the deal rather than Yzerman, but the Wings wouldn’t budge. The ask by the Nordiques was Fedorov, Gallant, Lapointe, Primeau, Racine, Riendeau and money. Detroit would have received Lindros, Wolanin, Raglan, Maltais, and one other player.
Chicago:
The offer itself isn’t mentioned, but the Hawks and Nordiques apparently appeared to have a deal that would include “a bunch of players and seven draft picks” but Mike Keenan had to go talk to Bill Wirtz to get approval for the $15 million that would be part of the deal. Wirtz nixed that and the deal fell through. He didn’t want to pay the $15 million. Marcel Aubut was under the impression that the Hawks trade was a done deal, and the team even stopped negotiating with Philly because of it.
New York Rangers:
After the Chicago deal fell through, the Nordiques and Rangers met the morning of the draft and came to an agreement on a trade. We all know what happened there, but Page confirmed that the deal would have included:
John Vanbiesbrouck
Doug Weight
Alexei Kovalev
Tony Amonte
3 1st round picks
$15 million
Page on Forsberg/Lindros:
“We saw him play when he was 18 and he was five foot eleven, one hundred sixty-five pounds. He was not fast, not slow, but he was skilled and gritty. Anyone who says he was going to be a superstar is lying. He was good, but he was not above average fast. He was just nasty, gritty, and skilled. Then, a year and a half later, he’s six foot one, two inches taller and twenty-five pounds bigger, and faster, which is unusual. We hit the jackpot. We knew he was good. Inge Hammarstrom, who was a Flyers scout, has said he wouldn’t have done the deal one-for-one for Lindros. To be honest, at that time, Lindros was way, way better. Peter got better and better, become a two-way player. He was the best player in the NHL at one time, according to Glen Sather.”
“Lindros was a six-foot-five Gordie Howe. Forsberg could have won four Stanley Cups. He was a gritty Jacques Lemaire, who won eight. Philly didn’t find the pieces to go around him to help Lindros win Stanley Cups. He just had to win four or five Cups and he would have been one of the best players in the history of hockey.”
*One other interesting bit of info is that Quebec was insistent for quite some time in the trade talks that Rod Brind’Amour was to be included in the deal but Philadelphia refused.
I’ve always been particularly interested in the many trade packages that Quebec had on the table during this time. Teams were willing to trade multiple star level players, and weighing the many offers must have caused many sleepless nights in the Quebec front office.
Many of the speculated offers have been discussed over the years, but Doug MacLean’s new book “Draft Day” includes a chapter dedicated to this and there is some information within that I didn’t know - and I have researched Lindros and his pre-NHL days extensively throughout the years. Doug spoke with Pierre Page while writing the book and gives some pretty nice insight.
Quebec thought they still had a shot to sign Eric right up until their last meeting with him at some point in early 1992. They brought in Guy Lafleur, who really thought he would have a big impact on Eric, as a last ditch effort to convince him to sign. After the meeting, Guy was alleged to be highly insulted and shocked. He told the Nordiques that there was “no way” Eric would ever play a single game for Quebec. That meeting, and the fact that Eric even turned down a 10-year $50 million contract, sealed the deal that they were going to have to move him.
Pretty much every team in the league was alleged to be interested in making a deal, but according to the book there were 14 serious packages on the table. As the 1992 Draft approached, the Nords rented the entire fifth floor of the Hyatt Hotel in Montreal and brought in a five-star chef and security guards. Management slept in shifts to make sure someone was always fresh for trade talks.
Page lists the following three teams as Eric’s preferred destinations if he had his way:
1. Chicago
2. Toronto
3. New York Rangers
He apparently didn’t want to go to Los Angeles, but a reason wasn’t given.
Now, here are a few of the offers that were on the table according to Page:
Montreal:
Page says Serge Savard and Patrick Roy didn’t get along, and Serge was ready to move on from him by this point. But they didn’t agree to the trade because they had “other good offers on the table.”
Patrick Roy
Guy Carbonneau
Eric Desjardins
Mike McPhee
Sylvain Lefebvre
Craig Darby
Jim Campbell
Toronto:
Page and Fletcher met at 3:30am one morning in the days leading to the draft and discussed Lindros for multiple hours. Page says Toronto had an “incredible” offer on the table but that it “wasn’t as good as the other ones.” According to Page, Cliff started getting cold feet and told him that he was very nervous as he felt the trade package was “too much.” Page says Cliff felt extra pressure since Toronto was one of the three teams the Lindros camp preferred as a destination.
Doug Gilmour
Wendel Clark
Felix Potvin
Dave Ellett
Ken Baumgartner
Darby Hendrickson
Draft Picks
$15 million
for
Eric Lindros
4th overall in ‘92
John Tanner
Stephane Fiset
Andrei Kovalenko
Calgary:
According to Page, the Flames made a very strong offer but ended up changing their mind soon afterwards and the potential deal was off.
The deal, according to Page, would have included Joe Nieuwendyk, Gary Suter, Mike Vernon, plus additional pieces.
St. Louis
The Blues had a package of players on the table that was centered around Brendan Shanahan and Brian Sutter among others.
Edit: He must have meant Ron Sutter. Brian was coaching the team by this point!
Detroit:
Doug MacLean was an assistant coach with the Wings during this time, so he’s able to offer some interesting insight on the trade talks with the Wings.
Detroit’s first offer that was tabled included:
Steve Yzerman
Martin Lapointe
Gerard Gallant
Steve Chiasson
Mike Sillinger
Yves Racine
$15 million
The Nordiques were adamant that they wanted Sergei Fedorov in the deal rather than Yzerman, but the Wings wouldn’t budge. The ask by the Nordiques was Fedorov, Gallant, Lapointe, Primeau, Racine, Riendeau and money. Detroit would have received Lindros, Wolanin, Raglan, Maltais, and one other player.
Chicago:
The offer itself isn’t mentioned, but the Hawks and Nordiques apparently appeared to have a deal that would include “a bunch of players and seven draft picks” but Mike Keenan had to go talk to Bill Wirtz to get approval for the $15 million that would be part of the deal. Wirtz nixed that and the deal fell through. He didn’t want to pay the $15 million. Marcel Aubut was under the impression that the Hawks trade was a done deal, and the team even stopped negotiating with Philly because of it.
New York Rangers:
After the Chicago deal fell through, the Nordiques and Rangers met the morning of the draft and came to an agreement on a trade. We all know what happened there, but Page confirmed that the deal would have included:
John Vanbiesbrouck
Doug Weight
Alexei Kovalev
Tony Amonte
3 1st round picks
$15 million
Page on Forsberg/Lindros:
“We saw him play when he was 18 and he was five foot eleven, one hundred sixty-five pounds. He was not fast, not slow, but he was skilled and gritty. Anyone who says he was going to be a superstar is lying. He was good, but he was not above average fast. He was just nasty, gritty, and skilled. Then, a year and a half later, he’s six foot one, two inches taller and twenty-five pounds bigger, and faster, which is unusual. We hit the jackpot. We knew he was good. Inge Hammarstrom, who was a Flyers scout, has said he wouldn’t have done the deal one-for-one for Lindros. To be honest, at that time, Lindros was way, way better. Peter got better and better, become a two-way player. He was the best player in the NHL at one time, according to Glen Sather.”
“Lindros was a six-foot-five Gordie Howe. Forsberg could have won four Stanley Cups. He was a gritty Jacques Lemaire, who won eight. Philly didn’t find the pieces to go around him to help Lindros win Stanley Cups. He just had to win four or five Cups and he would have been one of the best players in the history of hockey.”
*One other interesting bit of info is that Quebec was insistent for quite some time in the trade talks that Rod Brind’Amour was to be included in the deal but Philadelphia refused.
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