Lindros Situation on Hold

Those plans to hoist a No. 88 Kings’ sweater to the rafters of Staples Center? Put them on hold.

The idea of putting Eric Lindros between Ziggy Palffy and Luc Robitaille on a line in October? Consider Jozef Stumpel’s return instead.

The photographer waiting to take Eric Lindros’ picture in black and purple for the cover of the media guide? Tell him to forget it.

For now.

That’s what Lindros told Dave Taylor, the Kings’ senior vice president and general manager, Monday.

“Let’s get one thing straight,” the Philadelphia center and perennial all-star, said. “I don’t know if I can play next year at all, and until I do know, I think it’s unfair to negotiate with anybody.”

Lindros said he is still feeling the effects of a concussion, suffered May 26 during Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals.

Or, perhaps, what he’s feeling are the cumulative effects of the six concussions he has suffered over the last two seasons, three in each.

“Nothing can be talked about until I feel better than I feel,” said Lindros, who is vacationing at his summer home near Toronto. “I don’t think that’s going to happen any time soon.”

That has to send shivers down the spine of Bob Clarke, the Flyer general manager who has until Friday night to decide whether to commit $8.5 million to a player who might not put on skates next season. Though the Kings say they don’t feel under any time constraints in dealing with Lindros, his unwillingness to negotiate until he’s feeling better puts pressure on Clarke.

Lindros, 27, is a Group II free agent, and Philadelphia has to tender him an offer at least equal to last season’s salary to keep the rights to his services, even to trade him. If that happens, the Flyers are on the hook for his salary next season, even if he is determined medically unfit to play.

The other option is for Clarke to simply let him go as an unrestricted free agent and face the possibility that Lindros will sign with the New York Rangers, come back into First Union Center three times a season and beat the Flyers’ brains out.

You have to sense that Clarke would find sending Lindros to Los Angeles--a Western Conference team that plays at Philadelphia only once a season--much more palatable.

“I don’t know what they’re going to do,” Lindros said. “Nothing is going to happen by [Friday night].”

Lindros said Monday he is feeling better than when he was examined by Chicago neurologist James Kelly during the Stanley Cup finals. Kelly prepared a report on that examination that is required reading by the Kings, Rangers and Maple Leafs.

Lindros said he has not seen the report, but that the Flyers received it Friday, two days before Clarke granted the three teams permission to talk with Lindros.

The Flyers also say their medical staff has determined Lindros “will be fine” to play hockey. That’s the same staff criticized by Lindros after his March 4 concussion--No. 5 if you’re keeping track--when he was allowed to stay in the lineup. The criticism was deemed sufficient insubordination for Clarke to strip Lindros of his captaincy.

The Rangers’ Glen Sather was first on Lindros’ phone line, getting through Sunday night to press New York’s suit in his first major player action since leaving the Edmonton Oilers. With the Rangers’ open-wallet policy--a far cry from what he was used to in Edmonton--Sather has to be salivating.

Sather is also said to be negotiating for Vancouver center Mark Messier, a part of the Rangers’ Stanley Cup championship of 1994 and a Lindros favorite.

But he was told the same thing Taylor and a representative of the Maple Leafs were told--wait and see.

“To do anything else would be putting the cart before the horse,” Lindros said. “It would be crossing a bridge that isn’t even built yet.”

The Kings’ role in this scenario is one that developed quickly, but has been put on hold, as directed by their quarry.

“I talked with Eric this morning, and I don’t want to get into specifics because he is still under contract with the Flyers,” Taylor said. “The primary concern right now is his health. It’s his decision to hold off [talks] for now.”