Why haven't we seen another Eric Lindros?

[S E P H]

Curious question, we've had a ton of brilliant players come through the ranks since his last game, but nobody has ever come close to the physical dominance and skillset that Lindros had. Why haven't we seen someone like him since? Are players like him that rare? Should he be considered more of a generational player or even one of the best ever considering how rare it is to see a player like him?

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[HighLifeManIsHigh]

This term is overused these days, but the guy was a unicorn. 6’4” and skates like that with good hands and a good shot? If he kept his head up, he would have been the most dominant player the sport has ever seen

 

[Kreator]

The Big E in his prime was UNREAL...the Darth Vader of the NHL.

 

[LemonSauceD]

I mean Lindros was amazing, but I had never seen a player like Ovechkin before either, who was/is a pretty big and heavy player.

 

[WarriorofTime]

Guys with his build and athletic traits mostly play football.

 

[Figgy44]

Curious question, we've had a ton of brilliant players come through the ranks since his last game, but nobody has ever come close to the physical dominance and skillset that Lindros had. Why haven't we seen someone like him since? Are players like him that rare? Should he be considered more of a generational player or even one of the best ever considering how rare it is to see a player like him?

He was touted to be "the next one". He was a rare generational combo, even back then. He had IQ to go with a ridiculous physical skill set.

Sorry to loosely quote Moneyball, but Lindros was basically a true 5 tool player for a league happy to get 2-3 tools out of a player.

The only thing he lacked was health. Until the NHL, he always played against players where no one could hurt him. If he played with modern day head hunting rules, he'd probably be healthy for most of his career and be an absolute menace to the league.

With the way the league is trending, any player blessed with natural sports talent and IQ to be the next Lindros in hockey is probably playing other sports for more money and certainty instead.

 

[Lampedampe]

Never watched Lindros play, but is Malkin the closest thing today?

 

[Deep Blue Metallic]

Never watched Lindros play, but is Malkin the closest thing today?

Although Malkin is/was undeniably a physical player, nobody was ever afraid of Malkin's physical play. Lindros ... ya, he was scary.

Closest player currently is Brady. Great player, but not all that close to Lindros.

OP is onto something here.

 

[SomeDude]

Ovy is basically the winger version of Lindros but he learned to skate with his head up.

 

[Deep Blue Metallic]

Ovy is basically the winger version of Lindros but he learned to skate with his head up.

Pens fan hates the Caps less than the Flyers vibes.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Never watched Lindros play, but is Malkin the closest thing today?

Sort of, but Malkin has a little more skill and a little less physicality. Think Tom Wilson style physicality, welcoming the contact and looking to run guys through the end boards just because he can. Then Malkin level skating with just slightly less refined stick handling and puck control.

What was said upthread is accurate, he’s a guy you see once every 50 years if you’re lucky. He had everything you’d want in a big power center.

 

[Nogatco Rd]

Some possibilities: many of the best athletes play football, a shrinking/stagnating talent pool as the game gets more and more expensive, kids have less opportunities to “just play” in an unstructured environment and are over-coached which stifles creativity

Overall though I think it’s likely he’s a bit of a unicorn and it’s possible we never see another like him in most of our lifetimes.

The fact that his brother wasn’t even a fraction as good as him despite sharing most of his genes and (presumably) similar development opportunities, seems to be a testament to the “freakish” nature of Eric’s abilities

 

[ViD]

I would say Ovechkin in his prime was both skilled and physical at the highest level

 

[StreetHawk]

Sort of, but Malkin has a little more skill and a little less physicality. Think Tom Wilson style physicality, welcoming the contact and looking to run guys through the end boards just because he can. Then Malkin level skating with just slightly less refined stick handling and puck control.

What was said upthread is accurate, he’s a guy you see once every 50 years if you’re lucky. He had everything you’d want in a big power center.

Agreed. He just looked down for the puck too often and got whacked once he got to the nhl.

I’m today’s nhl you’d need the physicality and meanness of Tom Wilson with the skill set of a Malkin.

 

[Albatros]

The Big E in his prime was UNREAL...the Darth Vader of the NHL.

Chewbacca.

 

[Rorschach]

I thought of him like a young Gordie Howe with faceoff ability.

 

[Seras]

I would say Ovechkin in his prime was both skilled and physical at the highest level

For me the difference physically is that Ovechkin will lay you out with a big hit if your not paying attention, where with Lindros players feared him when he was close to them.

 

[Rorschach]

Chewbacca.

*Brent Burns has entered the chat. *

 

[karltonian]

probably because of what happened to eric lindros

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Darius Kasparaitis posted laughing emoji



There's been big skilled players since but the huge hits and what not just kind of went away as for one a ton of those kinds of hits were often times charging, head shots, etc. So as the game got cleaned up, you had Bertuzzi emerge as a "type" of that player and to a lesser extent Tom Wilson.

None with that hype or high end talent. For a 4yr stretch Bertuzzi, Kreider has had moments of it for the size and skill but less so of a powerforward type in that traditional sense like Lindros.

 

[MoneyManny]

Guys with his build and athletic traits mostly play football.

In the USA sure, still not a lot of international players in pro football.

 

[Paddys Pub]

He was a true generational talent.
That word gets tossed around so much it has lost meaning.
Apparently there are currently 20+ generational players in the league. lol

Lindros had a toolbox most players would dream of, and it was overflowing with the best tools around.

The only skill he didn’t have was keeping his head up

 

[WarriorofTime]

In the USA sure, still not a lot of international players in pro football.

There are 34 Canadians in the NFL and over 200 in NCAA Football.

 

[Figgy44]

Sort of, but Malkin has a little more skill and a little less physicality. Think Tom Wilson style physicality, welcoming the contact and looking to run guys through the end boards just because he can. Then Malkin level skating with just slightly less refined stick handling and puck control.

What was said upthread is accurate, he’s a guy you see once every 50 years if you’re lucky. He had everything you’d want in a big power center.

I think he'd be kinda like Ovi's skill set with an added element of Wilson + Trouba level of intent to hurt you. But even that feels lacking as a good explanation of what Lindros was like on the ice.

I've never seen someone else hold other players (or be held back) with one arm while swinging a wooden stick one handed with ease to shoot like Lindros did. Modern players don't do it with ease like he did even with lighter modern composite sticks.

I've often felt that even though he had excellent stick handling skills, it always looked unrefined in some senses to many other players. Like a dude who basically learned to play with an oar but realized a hockey stick was more legal and lighter. Just pure game breaking levels of brute force stick skills vs finesse.

There's been quite a few players that played like a bull in a China shop. Lindros was more like a rhino. He was truly scary and he had certain attributes that less than a handful of players in the entire history of the league ever had.

 

[Leafs87]

According to most people’s uncles it would of been them if not for that one injury