Eric Lindros' Rookie Season

[DitchMarner]

Can his rookie season be considered underwhelming? He was 19 heading into the season and ended up putting up 75 points in 61 games, finishing 67th in League scoring and 22nd in points per game among players that played at least 40 games. He finished well behind Selanne in the rookie scoring race (Selanne put up 132 points).


Crosby scored 102 points in his rookie season and finished sixth scoring in it. McDavid finished third in points per game among players who played at least 40 games in his rookie season. Both of these players started playing in the NHL as 18 year olds. Ovechkin started his NHL career as a 20 old and he finished third in scoring as a rookie.

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[Staniowski]

Can his rookie season be considered underwhelming? He was 19 heading into the season and ended up putting up 75 points in 61 games, finishing 67th in League scoring and 22nd in points per game among players that played at least 40 games. He finished well behind Selanne in the rookie scoring race (Selanne put up 132 points).


Crosby scored 102 points in his rookie season and finished sixth scoring in it. McDavid finished third in points per game among players who played at least 40 games in his rookie season. Both of these players started playing in the NHL as 18 year olds. Ovechkin started his NHL career as a 20 old and he finished third in scoring as a rookie.

Perhaps a little underwhelming considering the incredible expectations and also the fact that he was 19 years old. But I don't remember it as being a major disappointment. It was a pretty good rookie season.

In the following 4 seasons, he would finish 3rd, 1st, 3rd, and 2nd in PPG, so he did well over the early years of his career. I think only Lemieux scored at a higher clip during that period. Of course, except for the year he led the NHL in scoring, he missed lots of time in each of these seasons.

Teemu was 3 years older than Lindros.

 

[streitz]

I'm more critical of lindros then most people but his rookie season was fine, obviously he got injured which was a sign of things to come.

 

[Normand Lacombe]

Lindros missed 23 games because of knee problems. My math maybe off, but had he played the then 84 game schedule, I believe Lindros would have produced a little over 100 points.

 

[ted2019]

I'm more critical of lindros then most people but his rookie season was fine, obviously he got injured which was a sign of things to come.

I remember watching the game that he suffered his knee injury in. I wish that it wasn't a sign for things to come.

 

[The Panther]

It looks a little underwhelming because Recchi had a huge season that year for Philly, as did Brind'amour, but no, it was an awesome rookie outing.

As mentioned, he was on pace for 103 points in an 84-game season, which is incredible in any era. That still would have put him comfortably 2nd to Recchi in team scoring, but probably just inside the top-20 NHL scorers. But what's really impressive is his five-on-five dominance. Philly was under .500 on the season, yet Lindros was a +28, by far the best on his team, and probably paced to be one of the ten best in the League.

In fact, his overall goals-for vs. goals-against was 119 (for) vs. 63 (against), an almost 2-1 margin to the good. By contrast, Brind'amour was 123 (for) vs. 121 (against), and ended up a -8 on the season (albeit he did have a lot of defensive responsibilities), so it kind of shows how the ice was already tilted when Lindros was on it.

It's just a pity that, as usual, he couldn't play the full season!

 

[Normand Lacombe]

I remember watching the game that he suffered his knee injury in. I wish that it wasn't a sign for things to come.

I was at this game. It was against Buffalo at the Spectrum. From what I recall, Petr Svoboda, a future teammate of Lindros, accidentally fell into Lindros' knee. It wasn't dirty on Svoboda's part, he either was tripped or lost his edge.

 

[Boris Le Tigre]

He also beat Scott Stevens in a fight pretty decisively. I think that kicked off their rivalry.

Like Stevens, Lindros took a lot of heat for his own crushing body checks. And I think some old school guys, not just Stevens, didn’t like how he held out and did not sign with the the team that owned his rights, the Nordiqes (because teams had longer term and stricter control). He was challenged on both of those accounts in the first few years of his career as we all know.

His impact was most similar to the impact of McDavid and Crosby, considering how popular and effective he was.

 

[tony d]

I remember picking him to win the Calder that yr. That never happened and he wasn't even a finalist. Still it was a good season but injuries really ruined that season for him as they did his career. Oh and @Normand Lacombe I just did the math and had Lindros played the full 84 game season that yr. he would have got 103 pts had he kept up the pace.

 

[Dissonance Jr]

Early in his rookie season, Lindros was absolutely living up to the hype. That Fedyk-Lindros-Recchi line was ridiculous and had something like 80 points in the first 20 games. Here's a good description:

During a five-game winning streak at the end of November, just before Lindros went down with the knee injury that would keep him out of 23 games before the All-Star break in February, the team was terrorizing opponents from the initial face-off.

"Eric would knock someone through the boards, (Mark) Recchi would score a goal, and the whole pattern of the game was set," Bowen says. In one game during the streak, against the Ottawa Senators, Lindros went out in the first shift and hit every man except the goalie, recalls Coach Dineen. "Their whole bench was in awe of it."

After that, things unraveled a bit. First he injured his knee in November. Then, while recovering, he was accused of elbowing and spitting beer on a woman in a bar and had to go to court. (He later testified that he had taunted her into pressing charges, saying, "I make $3.5 million a year. What are you going to do about it?") Then, in January, Lindros re-injured his knee after getting into another bar fight in New Jersey.

By that point, Flyers management was getting fed up and basically forced him to move in with veteran Kevin Dineen. Things calmed down after that.

Once Lindros finally got back on the ice, he was apparently up and down: "Some nights he ruled, other nights he was invisible. [Coach] Bill Dineen speculated that conditioning was a problem after such a long layoff." But he still ended up scoring at a 100-point pace that season, as others have noted. So not too shabby.

Reading press clips from that era, it seems like some people saw his season as something of a disappointment, given that he was the second-highest-paid player in the league after Lemieux. But everyone agreed that Lindros had shown he'd be a dominating force if he could just stay healthy.

 

[Cup or Bust]

The only thing disappointing about Lindros rookie season and the following seasons was that he missed so many games. He scored at a 55 goal and 100 point pace as a 19 year old and was +28 in only 61 games. He was a dominant force when he was healthy, it is unfortunate we never got the see enough of him at his best. Even 20 odd years later I am still waiting to see another player like him. It was like watching Milan Lucic combined with Jamie Benn.

 

[JackSlater]

Very good season. Among the massively hyped it is a bit below average though, as in below Gretzky, Ovechkin, Crosby and probably Lemieux in their rookie years. Comparable to McDavid's rookie year depending on what someone is looking for. Above Lafleur's rookie year.

 

[mrhockey193195]

Very good season. Among the massively hyped it is a bit below average though, as in below Gretzky, Ovechkin, Crosby and probably Lemieux in their rookie years. Comparable to McDavid's rookie year depending on what someone is looking for. Above Lafleur's rookie year.

Aside from the fact that he missed a bunch of games, Lindros's rookie year must be as good, if not better than Mario's, no?

 

[82Ninety42011]

Aside from the fact that he missed a bunch of games, Lindros's rookie year must be as good, if not better than Mario's, no?

Mario played 73 games and put up 43-57-100 line. I think Mario had him by a bit and he didn't cry being drafted by a bottom feeder either. Lindros never lived up to the hype problem was he put the stress on himself not playing for Quebec. Then after could never keep his head up hence the injuries. He thought he could just bull through people and others showed him he was wrong. Great player who if just used his head more and tried knowing his surroundings would have been much better.

 

[Troubadour]

Of course it was underwhelming. He had been hyped to be the biggest thing in hockey since Lemieux at least, ready for the NHL at 16, a dominant force that can't be stopped. Then came the I'm-too-good-for-Quebec soap opera, Flyers threw a fortune on him, and when the time to perform arrived, he played well enough to receive exactly zero first place Calder votes and finished fourth in the voting behind Felix Potvin.

How anyone can claim it was not a disappointment? The legend had depicted him as GREAT, but he was just very, very good.

 

[The Panther]

Of course it was underwhelming. He had been hyped to be the biggest thing in hockey since Lemieux at least, ready for the NHL at 16, a dominant force that can't be stopped. Then came the I'm-too-good-for-Quebec soap opera, Flyers threw a fortune on him, and when the time to perform arrived, he played well enough to receive exactly zero first place Calder votes and finished fourth in the voting behind Felix Potvin.

How anyone can claim it was not a disappointment? The legend had depicted him as GREAT, but he was just very, very good.

C'mon, don't be intentionally silly.

If Lindros hadn't been injured, he likely would have been 2nd in Calder voting to the #1 rookie goal/point-scoring season in NHL history. In 90% of NHL seasons, he would have won the Calder easily. It was an awesome rookie season.

 

[The Pale King]

C'mon, don't be intentionally silly.

If Lindros hadn't been injured, he likely would have been 2nd in Calder voting to the #1 rookie goal/point-scoring season in NHL history. In 90% of NHL seasons, he would have won the Calder easily. It was an awesome rookie season.

Not to mention Potvin was an excellent goalie at that stage of his career, playing in the biggest hockey market in the world. Picture Vasilevskiy on the Leafs of the past few seasons, with the added "benefit" of being Canadian.

 

[Troubadour]

C'mon, don't be intentionally silly.

If Lindros hadn't been injured, he likely would have been 2nd in Calder voting to the #1 rookie goal/point-scoring season in NHL history. In 90% of NHL seasons, he would have won the Calder easily. It was an awesome rookie season.

Likely? He would have as likely finished third to Juneau.

And you completely failed to grasp my point.

In a vacuum, it was a great rookie year. In the context of the 92/93 season and the fact it was the most hyped prospect in the history of the game we are talking about, it was a clear disappointment.

Mentioning how decent all his rookie competitors were is -- yet again -- completely futile, because Lindros was so hyped he should have had no competitors whatsoever. He basically did not justify his hype, thus the season was underwhelming, which does not mean it wasn't good (you fail to separate these two things).

Injury or not, he would still have received zero first place Calder votes. Very, very underwhelming, considering the hype.

 

[The Panther]

Mentioning how decent all his rookie competitors were is -- yet again -- completely futile, because Lindros was so hyped he should have had no competitors whatsoever. He basically did not justify his hype, thus the season was underwhelming, which does not mean it wasn't good (you fail to separate these two things).

Injury or not, he would still have received zero first place Calder votes. Very, very underwhelming, considering the hype.

I suppose this could be true if educated, experienced fans lived their lives according to hype.

I interpreted the OP's wording of "could be considered" to mean considered by us, the posters on the forum, and not by the mass herd of media and trend-following fans with 5 minute attention spans, but I guess that's how you're understanding it. Okay.

 

[daver]

Aside from the fact that he missed a bunch of games, Lindros's rookie year must be as good, if not better than Mario's, no?

Among players who played at least,40 games, Mario was 9th in PPG, Lindros was 22nd.

 

[Spirit of 67]

My memory of it was that it was a fine rookie season.

 

[daver]

Likely? He would have as likely finished third to Juneau.

And you completely failed to grasp my point.

In a vacuum, it was a great rookie year. In the context of the 92/93 season and the fact it was the most hyped prospect in the history of the game we are talking about, it was a clear disappointment.

Mentioning how decent all his rookie competitors were is -- yet again -- completely futile, because Lindros was so hyped he should have had no competitors whatsoever. He basically did not justify his hype, thus the season was underwhelming, which does not mean it wasn't good (you fail to separate these two things).

Injury or not, he would still have received zero first place Calder votes. Very, very underwhelming, considering the hype.

How does he finish 3rd to Juneau? He would have had one or two more points, 20 more goals, and a huge edge in physicality. And Juneau was 23 at the time which like Selanne, needs to be considered in the context of the OP too if it was relevant.

As per the hype, a Top Ten points finish as a 19 year old would have been expected or even exceeded the hype. Mario and Crosby were better offensive prospects and finished Top Ten in their draft years.

 

[Troubadour]

How does he finish 3rd to Juneau? He would have had one or two more points, 20 more goals, and a huge edge in physicality. And Juneau was 23 at the time which like Selanne, needs to be considered in the context of the OP too if it was relevant.

As per the hype, a Top Ten points finish as a 19 year old would have been expected or even exceeded the hype. Mario and Crosby were better offensive prospects and finished Top Ten in their draft years.

In the context of this thread, the fact that Juneau or Selanne were two or three years older is not that relevant, since Lindros was hyped to be ready for the NHL at 16. Also, nobody expected Juneau to start off like that, meanwhile everyone expected Eric to be way better. Lindros and his first season were an anti-climax to the expectations which were fairly inhuman and there is nothing anyone can do about it.

As for the second paragraph, Lindros scoring at the 1.22 PPG pace for 84 games would have not put him in the top ten, since his teammate finished tenth with 20 more points than Eric would have had. Any way we slice it, Eric's rookie year was indeed underwhelming.

I'm not sure if Sid was considered a better offensive prospect. The fact is, in his first season, he finished 6th in points despite being only 18. And more importantly, he did not get outperformed by another rookie to the extent Selanne smoked Lindros.

Underwhelming is a perfectly fitting word.

EDIT: Still, someone dropped Lindros a 3rd place Hart vote, which was good enough for finishing 9th. Next year, curiously, he got none.

 

[Rebels57]

Keep in mind, that Flyers team was quite bad. He had very little support. There was a massive drop-off in talent after Lindros, Recchi, and Brind'Amour.

I don't know how anyone can call 41 goals in 61 games at 19 years old "dissapointing" lol. That is 11th best in G/GP in the NHL that season.

 

[daver]

In the context of this thread, the fact that Juneau or Selanne were two or three years older is not that relevant, since Lindros was hyped to be ready for the NHL at 16. Also, nobody expected Juneau to start off like that, meanwhile everyone expected Eric to be way better. Lindros and his first season were an anti-climax to the expectations which were fairly inhuman and there is nothing anyone can do about it.

As for the second paragraph, Lindros scoring at the 1.22 PPG pace for 84 games would have not put him in the top ten, since his teammate finished tenth with 20 more points than Eric would have had. Any way we slice it, Eric's rookie year was indeed underwhelming.

I'm not sure if Sid was considered a better offensive prospect. The fact is, in his first season, he finished 6th in points despite being only 18. And more importantly, he did not get outperformed by another rookie to the extent Selanne smoked Lindros.

Underwhelming is a perfectly fitting word.

EDIT: Still, someone dropped Lindros a 3rd place Hart vote, which was good enough for finishing 9th. Next year, curiously, he got none.

I guess you can say he was just about anything to make your point that he was underwhelming.

In terms of him as a prospect with reasonable expectations, Crosby should have been viewed as the better offensive prospect, or at least had the more impressive junior career offense-wise.