Eric Lindros Announces Retirement

Prelude- A quiet little event is taking place today (Thursday Nov 8, 07). But from the small talk around the water cooler point of view, it is worth a visit. Let's do just that.

Sport - Hockey

Event - Eric Lindros announces his retirement from professional hockey.

Issue - Hockey fans have known of Eric Lindros since before his junior days. He has been one of the few to wear the heavy "the next Gretzky" tag, currently being worn by Sidney Crosby.

The issue centres around whether he lived up to this billing or not. He was just dominant during his peak years. But was he elite for long enough to warrant consideration for the the prestigious honour of entering the Hockey Hall of Fame?

Point to Say - "Do you think Eric Lindros will make it into the Hockey Hall of Fame?"

Follow up point - "Before his concussion injuries, he was truly one of the best in the game."

Backgrounder
Eric Lindros bio is a long one. In short though, he was a junior sensation leading the Oshawa Generals to the Championship of junior hockey (known as the Memorial Cup). At a very young age he played for team Canada during the Famous Canada Cup of 1991. Once joining the NHL, he won MVP in 1995 and was on 6 all-star teams.

A defining moment in the story of Lindros, was the draft of 1991. Taken first overall by the Quebec Nordiques (now known as the Colorado Avalanche) he refused to report demanding a trade. Unheard of a player to do this at the time. He was subsequently traded to the Philadelphia Flyers. From there he has played for four teams including the Toronto Maple Leafs for one year.

As a player he average more than a point a game for the first few years of his career (865 points in 760 games). This is very impressive accomplishment. Of note, in 1998, Lindros was ranked number 54 on The Hockey News' list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players of all time.

But any discussion of Lindros has to also include the number of games he has missed. In fact, he is synonymous with concussion related injuries. In fact, the injuries started to define the later half of his career. For example, over the past three years, he played in only 121 out of a possible 246 games.

Analysis
Will he make into the Hall of Fame? Usually it is based on your statistical performance. For Lindros, he has very good stats but the issue is, are the cumulatively big enough.

He scored a total of 372 goals and 493 assists in his 14 years in the league. However these totals don't put him near the top of any cumulative statistical category.

The answer is, some will say yes because he was such a dominant player. Some will say no, because he didn't sustain his dominance like most who get voted into the Hall of Fame.

Links
Excellent analysis of this situation can be found in Stephen Brunt's column.

Click here to see a chronology of Eric Lindros's hockey career.