The price may be more dear this time. This time, they're actually going to get him.
With one swoop of a pen, Eric Lindros can sign the Rangers back to the dark ages of the franchise.
It's through no fault of his own. He wants to play again, to risk some horrifying injuries, some terrible damages to his mind. It's his body.
The unconscionable risk is the Rangers'.
By presenting Lindros with a contract and by presenting Bobby Clarke with three good young players -- overpaying while possibly bidding against himself in both cases -- Glen Sather has placed his franchise in a precarious spot.
The reward, the best-case scenario, is that Lindros, despite being an old 28, miraculously never receives another bump to the head. He never suffers that next and final concussion. He remains reasonably healthy and scores above his career average, getting 90 points. He becomes the No. 1 center the Rangers have lacked since the first Mark Messier era, taking the pressure off Petr Nedved and Manny Malhotra, and the Rangers sneak into the playoffs. Maybe they threaten for the conference title again once during the contract.
Worst case? Given the luck of the player, his medical history and the luck of the franchise? He slips on the way out to his first skate and bumps his head on a bench, forcing his retirement.
Be honest: which is more reasonable?
That concussion will happen. If not, it will be something else for one of the unluckiest fragile stars in the NHL, a player who has more seasons with no games played than he does seasons with 75 games played, and who has averaged only 60 games per season.
Giving up Kim Johnsson isn't awful. The Rangers have plenty of his type of player, Ron Low never seemed enthused about him, and with the arrival of Igor Ulanov, Dave Karpa and Darren Van Impe, his playing time would dwindle anyway.
Pavel Brendl, who always seemed to need to be 10 pounds lighter, isn't an unrecoverable loss, either. He may become a 40-goal scorer, or he may be a complete bust, but he's as much of a question as Lindros.
It's giving away Jan Hlavac that puzzles. Here was Neil Smith's second-to-last great gift to the franchise, a seeming throw-in to the deal that brought Jamie Lundmark. Here was a player that just missed 30 goals and 65 points in his second season in North America, a player who won't turn 25 until the exhibition games start. He could be a consistent two-way left winger, the kind of player a team needs to win, for years, maybe another decade.
To deal that kind of player, along with two other prospects, for a guy who may not play as many games over the life of his deal as Hlavac scores goals?
Maybe Lindros can recapture his glory, show maturity, be a leader and give New York the power center it desperately needs. Perhaps Brendl, Johnsson and Hlavac complement Philadelphia more than they would New York. Maybe they won't be Mike Ridley and Kelly Miller to Lindros' Bob Carpenter, be Tomas Sandstrom and Tony Granato to his Bernie Nicholls, be half the L.A. Kings roster to his Jari Kurri. Maybe he doesn't slip on his way to practice.
If he does, though, have a safe and happy '88, Rangers fans. Five years without the playoffs, and welcome back to the dark ages.
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Michael Fornabaio--mef17@oocities.com