Eric Lindros trade

As an amateur, Lindros played junior ice hockey for the Oshawa Generals of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL). He had been selected by the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds of the OHL, but he refused to play for them, and was traded to Oshawa. This led to a rule change that allowed players to play closer to their home.^[1] He led the Generals to the Memorial Cup in 1990, and won the Red Tilson Trophy, given to the Most Outstanding Player in the OHL, in 1991.^[2] That year, he was named the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) Player of the Year^[3] and won the CHL Top Draft Prospect Award. Lindros was considered the best prospect available in the 1991 NHL entry draft, and received the nickname "The Next One", as a possible successor to Wayne Gretzky, known as "The Great One".^[4]

The Quebec Nordiques, who won 28 games combined in the 1989–90 and 1990–91 seasons, held the first overall selection in the draft for the third consecutive year. They had selected Mats Sundin and Owen Nolan in the previous two drafts, and also had rising star Joe Sakic.^[3] Lindros, however, stated before the draft that he would hold out and refuse to play for Quebec if they drafted him.^[5][6] It was widely speculated that Lindros wanted to play in an English-speaking area that would present him with more endorsement opportunities,^[1] although Lindros himself later insisted that he was motivated solely by antipathy toward Nordiques owner Marcel Aubut.

The Nordiques selected Lindros despite the warning.^[7][8] He asked for a $3 million annual salary with the hopes that Quebec would trade him.^[9] Rather than sign with Quebec, he returned to Oshawa for the 1991–92 season and represented Canada in the 1992 Winter Olympics.^[1][10] Meanwhile, Lindros reportedly rejected a 10-year contract offer worth at least $50 million from the Nordiques in March 1992,^[11][12] although Quebec denied making the offer.^[13] Gord Kirke acted as legal counsel to Lindros during this time, and led contract negotiations. Kirke later stated about the incident that, "There were all kinds of allegations of Eric being anti-Quebec. But I knew it to be absolutely false. It had more to do with the management of the team".^[14]

By June 1992, the Nordiques announced that they were moving towards trading Lindros,^[15] and were engaged in trade discussions with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Calgary Flames, New Jersey Devils, Philadelphia Flyers, and Detroit Red Wings.^[16][17][18] The Red Wings were reported to be willing to trade Steve Yzerman, Steve Chiasson, and numerous draft picks to the Nordiques for Lindros. Yzerman indicated that he would also hold out from the Nordiques, should Detroit trade him to Quebec.^[19]

On June 20, 1992, at the onset of the 1992 NHL entry draft, the Nordiques entered into a verbal agreement on a trade involving Lindros with the Flyers. The trade was contingent on Lindros agreeing to play in Philadelphia. The Nordiques permitted Russ Farwell, the general manager of the Flyers, to call Lindros to discuss whether Lindros would be willing to play for the Flyers, and he received assurance that Lindros considered Philadelphia to be acceptable.^[20] Within 80 minutes of agreeing to a trade with Farwell, Marcel Aubut, the president of the Nordiques, had second thoughts about the trade with Philadelphia and verbally agreed to trade Lindros to the New York Rangers.^[21][22][23] The Flyers offer was reported to include Mike Ricci, Rod Brind'Amour, Mark Recchi, Steve Duchesne, Ron Hextall, Dominic Roussel, multiple first-round draft picks, and $15 million, while the Rangers had reportedly agreed to trade Sergei Nemchinov, Tony Amonte, Alexei Kovalev, James Patrick, and either John Vanbiesbrouck or Mike Richter, as well as multiple first-round draft picks, and $20 million.^[24]

The Flyers claimed that the Nordiques had reneged on their agreement, and filed a complaint with the NHL.^[20] The NHL appointed Larry Bertuzzi, a lawyer from Toronto, as the arbitrator of the conflict.^[25][26][27] Bertuzzi held a five-day hearing after the 1992 draft, in which he reviewed over 400 pages of handwritten notes and called 11 witnesses, including Lindros.^[11][21]

On June 30, Bertuzzi announced that he had determined that Quebec's agreement with the Flyers was enforceable.^[24][28] He considered Farwell's phone call with Lindros to be "critical" in making his decision. Bertuzzi also found the Rangers to be innocent of any wrongdoing.^[21] The finalized trade had the Nordiques acquire Hextall, Duchesne, Ricci, Kerry Huffman, Peter Forsberg, a first-round pick in the 1993 NHL entry draft, $15 million, and future considerations.^[11] As the agreed-upon trade included the Flyers sending a 1992 draft pick to Quebec which Philadelphia instead kept because the trade was not yet finalized, Bertuzzi helped the teams agree that the Flyers would send Chris Simon and a pick in the 1994 NHL entry draft to Quebec to compensate for the 1992 draft pick that the Flyers kept^[29] and used to select Ryan Sittler. The Nordiques selected Jocelyn Thibault with the 1993 draft pick (10th overall pick), while they swapped 1994 first-round picks with Toronto Maple Leafs as part of a larger 6-player trade, with Quebec drafting Jeff Kealty 22nd overall with the pick from Toronto, while Toronto traded the original Philadelphia pick to the Washington Capitals, who selected Nolan Baumgartner 10th overall in 1994.^[30][31]