Eric Lindros is once again holding a gun to a hockey team's head just so he can get his way. This time, though, it's not the team that owns his rights, the Philadelphia Flyers, it's the team he wants to go to, the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Perhaps Lindros can afford to bully front offices the way he does smaller players on the ice because of his unparalleled size and skill. But, as evidenced by his battle with concussions, his style of play has come back to haunt him, and now, too, so may his latest political power play.

Lindros, who has determined where he would play at every level of hockey in his career, wants to play for the team he grew up watching. He wants to be the focus of hockey-mad Toronto. He wants the pressure, wants the scrutiny and wants the hype.

Truth is, the Maple Leafs probably don't want him.

Since being cleared to play in November after recovering from his sixth concussion, Lindros has maintained he will only play in Toronto, therefore limiting the Flyers' options.

Toronto fans and media have demanded that a deal be made to bring the local boy home. The press made a huge deal when Lindros showed up to skate at a local rink wearing blue and white Maple Leaf-style gloves.

Now, a little over three weeks from the NHL trading deadline, the Lindros fever has become an epidemic. The media continues their daily coverage of the saga. Sporting goods stores in the area have started selling Maple Leafs jerseys outfitted with Lindros' signature number 88.

Ownership, knowing well what is best for business, has laid down the mandate to general manager Pat Quinn to go get Lindros.

Quinn clearly isn't interested in the former league MVP, at least not at the price Flyers GM Bob Clarke is asking. Clarke wants Nik Antropov, a raw, untested center with size and talent. He also wants a young defenseman, now believed to be Tomas Kaberle, a puck-moving blueliner with the potential to be a Nicklas Lidstrom type player. He could also get fearless, free-wheeling Danny Markov, who is less polished and lacks Kaberle's offensive upside. Lastly, Clarke wants a first-round pick in the June entry draft.

Clarke has all the leverage in the deal, as the Flyers have no pressing needs. More than that, it's no stretch to say Clarke has a great dislike for Lindros and wouldn't mind letting him sit for the rest of the year, or even beyond that.

When Toronto makes the deal, which it appears it will do before the end of the week, it will have sacrificed their future without significantly improving their present shot at winning the Stanley Cup.

The Leafs were shut out by the New Jersey Devils last night, tied the Colorado Avalanche 5-5 before that, and fell 5-2 to the Flyers in the game previous to that. That's an average of an atrociously high four goals per game.

Top-flight defenseman Rob Blake is available from the Los Angeles Kings and would become a key cog to a Toronto Stanley Cup run. Lindros would likely be a cancer in a locker room that already resents him for the distractions his demand has caused.

The latest speculation out of Philadelphia is that Clarke will try to package what he gets from the Leafs for Blake, which would probably make them the favorite to come out of the East.

Whatever the case, the Flyers will significantly improve their team for this season and years to come with the trade. They are the hottest team in the league since Bill Barber took over as coach, and should get John LeClair back before the playoffs.

Toronto will lose a key defenseman, a future scoring-line center and a first-round pick. Sure, they'll be getting one of the best centers in the game, but Lindros has shown an inability to take a team to the next level.

The Flyers were swept by the Detroit Red Wings in their only Cup appearance with Lindros, if you could really call it that, since he was a complete non-factor in the series.

Lindros also failed to lead Team Canada to an Olympic Medal in 1998, when he captained what was clearly the most talented team in the tournament.

And chances are he will fail to lead the Maple Leafs to a championship, simply because they do not have enough defense to make a run deep into the playoffs.

The Lindros legacy to date is that of more hype than hockey, and little figures to change if and when he lands in Toronto.