TORONTO -- Last I saw Eric Lindros, it was on a beautiful April day here a few months ago when we caught up at a downtown restaurant for a pint. He walked in, and the priority of the moment was finding a place to put his stroller.
Lindros had brought 2-year-old Carl Pierre to our engagement. The smile on Big E's face when he introduced this hockey writer to his son said all you needed to know.
This is his life now. Happy and content, happily married, father of three young kids -- NHL superstardom is long ago behind him.
But there was one gnawing omission from his former career that was needed to fully close that chapter of his life: the nod from the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Six times passed over, Lindros finally got the call Monday.
"I'd be lying if I said I didn't know the date and didn't know the time that things were happening," Lindros said on a conference call with media Monday after being announced as part of the Class of 2016. He joins Sergei Makarov, Rogie Vachon and the late Pat Quinn.
Lindros' nomination Monday puts an end to a great hockey debate that's raged for the last six years: Should the Big E be in the Hall or not?
"I think there were some times when you get thinking back, wondering 'what if?' But I think when it's all said and done, certainly it's an honor. It feels full circle," said Lindros, 43.
"I play hockey just a couple of times of week just to try and fit into jeans," he added. "To have this at the end of things, when my game is certainly on the downslope, is a great feeling and a great honor, and I'm super-happy."
He said he never stopped smiling all day after Hockey Hall of Fame chairman Lanny McDonald called him with the news.
His induction, of course, won't please everyone. Lindros has been a polarizing figure from the day he chose not to report to the Quebec Nordiques, the team that drafted him first overall in 1991, forcing a famous blockbuster deal with the Philadelphia Flyers.
Lindros was asked Monday whether he regretted not going to Quebec.
Never shy to speak his mind throughout his career, he replied, "Quebec? No, I think true colors came out with what's gone on recently. It was a decision based on people and not on a province, not on a city, not on a culture. It was strictly on an owner." Lindros was referring to former Nordiques owner Marcel Aubut and the allegations of sexual harassment made against him last fall when he was president of the Canadian Olympic Committee. Aubut resigned in October and the investigation is still pending.
Lindros wasn't shy to take on the establishment. He rankled the Flyers when his father spoke to experts about concussions; the Lindros family thought No. 88 should perhaps sit out a week after having a concussion. Imagine that? Huge credit to Lindros for really starting the movement toward better education and understanding of concussions and brain injuries.
But despite Flyers GM Bob Clarke's clashes with Lindros, which eventually led to a trade to the New York Rangers, Clarke -- a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame's selection committee -- still believed No. 88 deserved to be in the Hall and has said so numerous times.
"Well, I think when it's all said and done, everyone wanted to win," Lindros said of Clarke and his time in Philadelphia. "And that was the main focus. Certainly, there were times of friction, but to have Bob's voice in support [of his induction], like so many [others] that I've got to thank for their help."
Before the turbulent times in Philly, there were the great times: the Legion of Doom, Lindros bulldozing his way to a Hart Trophy in 1995.
"We had a number of really good teams," said Lindros. "I think that feeling that you get when a line starts to come together -- and I was fortunate enough to play with Mikael Renberg and Johnny LeClair for quite an extended period of time -- that feeling that you get when things start to click and your team starts to improve, we had a couple of dry years initially. You just feel that momentum of the team taking off and you think to yourself, 'We're way better than we were last year,' and things greatly improve, and you're looking to playoffs, and not just one round but hopefully four rounds. It was a great experience to be part of the Flyers."
He won Olympic gold with Team Canada in 2002 at Salt Lake City but never a Stanley Cup, falling short with the 1997 Flyers versus the Detroit Red Wings, and he said Monday that leaves "a void."
But one void is now filled. The long wait for the Hall will be over once he officially puts on that jacket in November.
"It was six years and it was a bit of time, but I guess you can turn around and say I'm in the Hall forever going forward," said Lindros.
And one day, he'll bring his kids Carl Pierre, Sophie and Ryan to the Hockey Hall of Fame here in downtown Toronto and point to his plaque.
"Our oldest guy is only 2 and the twins are 9 months. I think we've got a couple of years before that's possible," said Lindros with a chuckle. "But certainly I'm looking forward to that day when I can share this with them."