On this Day: Lindros takes a bite out of The Big Apple

August 20th, 2001: Eric Lindros finally joins the New York Rangers. A full nine years after the Rangers had thought they’d acquired the future Hall of Famer via trade, Lindros elects to leave the Philadelphia Flyers and signs a three-year deal with the Blueshirts. 

The June 1992 trade that saw Lindros head from the Quebec Nordiques to the Philadelphia Flyers almost never happened as Nordiques president Marcel Aubut reportedly agreed to a deal with the Rangers and a deal with the Flyers simultaneously. The staggering price agreed on by the Rangers included Sergei Nemchinov, Tony Amonte, Alexei Kovalev, James Patrick either John Vanbiesbrouck or Mike Richter, first round draft picks and $20 million. Wow. In the end, the Lindros saga would need to be settled by an arbitrator who eventually concluded that Lindros would be heading to Philadelphia in exchange for Ron Hextall, Steve Duschesne, Mike Ricci, Kerry Huffman, Peter Forsberg, a first round pick and $15 million.

Lindros would sit out the entirety of the 2000-01 season with concussion issues and leave the Flyers organization to sign with the Rangers the following offseason. The power forward would play three mediocre seasons in New York before ultimately moving on to play for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Dallas Stars before retiring for good in 2007.