- Jan 22, 2007
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Like I said, the Flyers should have allowed the Rangers to have him.
Looking back on it now, definitely. But that's not fair.
At the time, the Flyers were looking for a marquee player as the face of their new arena. Let's not forget, unlike many owners today who try to hold their cities ransom for money, Ed Snider built the Flyers from the ground up. He wanted Lindros to sellout the new building. And what better player in Philadelphia than a 6-5, 230 pound monster who is tough and nails with skills to match? Lindros just demolished Ulf Samuelsson in the Canada Cup as a child, snapping his collarbone with a massive hit. Eric was supposed to be a bigger, meaner, more talented Mark Messier - he was tailor made for Philadelphia.
The thing is, the Flyers could have done the Lindros trade without Forsberg. If you read the book Full Spectrum, the Flyers asked Forsberg if he was willing to come over in 92-93 and he said no. So they traded him to Quebec instead of Slava Butsyav, who was coming over. The Flyers were so insistent on having players that season, they included Forsberg instead of Butsayev. While this doesn't seem logical, at the time, Butsayev was starting to blossom with Moscow and Farwell liked him a lot. Forsberg wasn't a Farwell pick, really, he was an Inge Hammarstrom brainchild. Hammarstrom begged the Flyers to draft Forsberg in the first round. Rumor has it he even offered to resign in 3 years if Forsberg wasn't a pending superstar in the NHL. If you watch footage of the draft, even Forsberg was shocked that he was picked in the first round.
3:00 in...