Lindros Trade: Tale of 2 Deals : Hockey: Secret hearings continue in effort to determine which team has rights to Nordique star.

Eric Lindros’ testimony was shrouded in secrecy Thursday at hearings to resolve his trade to two different NHL teams.

Lindros was spirited in and out of the closed-door meeting at a downtown hotel through a backdoor while a crowd of frustrated reporters waited in vain out front. But a television crew managed to film part of the meeting through a hole in the backdoor.

The 19-year-old hockey sensation packed his bags into a car and left the hotel shortly after a four-hour session conducted by arbitrator Larry Bertuzzi.

“We’ve been asked not to comment,” his father Carl told the French language station RDS at Dorval airport, where Lindros was catching a flight back to Toronto. “We’ve done our deed. It’s up to them to decide.”

Bertuzzi, a Toronto lawyer, is to judge whether Lindros should go to the Philadelphia Flyers or the New York Rangers after he apparently was traded to both clubs by the Quebec Nordiques on Saturday.

Or, both deals could be nullified and Lindros handed back to the Nordiques, with whom he refused to sign after he was drafted first overall in 1991.

Following Lindros’s appearance, Bertuzzi heard further evidence through 8 p.m. EDT.

“We hope to finish the evidence and the arguments as well,” he said in indicating he might wrap up proceedings today. “We got a lot done. We put in 10 hours and (today) we’re back at it again.”

Bertuzzi said he wanted all that was said at the hearings and even the identities of those who testify kept secret until after his decision is rendered.

He said bringing witnesses in through the backdoor was “appropriate under the circumstances.”

Although owner Bruce McNall of the Kings, who Monday was elected chairman of the league’s board of governors, promised a new open policy in how the league deals with both the media and public, it has not been evident at the hearings.

The media was warned that the back entrance was off-limits, but was not told that Lindros would use that door.

Some photographers and reporters waited six hours for a glimpse of the player many feel is hockey’s next superstar. Lindros had arrived at the hotel Wednesday night with his father, Carl, agent Rick Curran, and lawyer Gordon Kirk.

The hearings began Monday evening and could continue beyond today. Following the hearings, Bertuzzi is to return to Toronto to deliver his decision.

At issue is whether the Nordiques agreed to trade Lindros to Philadelphia before they signed a deal with New York moments before the start of the NHL draft Saturday.

The Flyers claim a deal was struck and they were in the process of calling Lindros to confirm he would report when Nordiques President Marcel Aubut made a second deal with the Rangers.

Quebec denies any deal was completed with Philadelphia.

There have been conflicting reports on what each team offered for Lindros, although it is believed Philadelphia offered $15 millon plus a package of players and draft picks, while the Rangers countered with $20 million plus players and picks.