Eric Lindros

At the end of the 1991-92 season, Quebec gave in to Lindros's demand and began negotiating a trade for his rights. A number of teams were interested, but when the trade was finally made, there was again controversy. The Nordiques traded his rights to two teams, the New York Rangers and the Philadelphia Flyers, at about the same time in a confusing timeline. This created a mess that had to be settled by an independent arbitrator. The Flyers came away with the rights to Lindros, giving up $15 million, five players (Ron Hextall, Mike Ricci, Steve Duchesne, Kerry Huffman, Peter Forsberg), and other considerations. This fiasco changed some procedures in the NHL concerning trades. The Flyers signed Lindros to a six-year $21 million deal, at the time the biggest in the NHL.

In his first two seasons with Philadelphia, Lindros played well but not to his full, huge potential. He was still a teenager with many expectations on him. He had injury issues (sprained knee first year and torn ligament in his right knee in his second) and missed forty-two games over both seasons. Lindros did set a rookie record for the Flyers by scoring forty-one goals in his first season, and was second place in NHL's rookie of the year voting. Though Lindros did not play the full 1993-94 season and the Flyers missed the playoffs, he still managed to score ninety-seven points. While it took time for him to adjust, Lindros was not intimated and had fun. Bruce Wallace wrote of his style of play in Maclean's, "On the ice, he is a menacing presence to opponents: a marauding, extremely physical player with spectacular scoring skills and a locomotive drive to win at all costs."