TORONTO (CP) - Eric Lindros admits that, after suffering eight concussions, he's not the player he used to be, but he's eager to prove he can help the Toronto Maple Leafs.
General manager John Ferguson is giving Lindros that chance, and taking a chance, in signing him to a $1.55-million US, one-year contract Thursday.
''I don't think you can run around and crash and bang quite the way that I might have done in the past,'' Lindros replied when asked during a news conference how he's had to adapt to his many injuries. ''Hopefully, I'm a little older and a little wiser.
''There's always risk. But I'm going to come in and play hard. I want to come in and contribute.''
The shoulder injury that limited him to 39 games with the New York Rangers the last time there was an NHL season, 2003-2004, is completely healed, he said. He's been skating for four weeks, practising yoga with Leafs enforcer Tie Domi, and he tips the scales at slightly more than 250 pounds.
''I generally play at about 244 so I've got a little bit to lose so I'll see you in a month,'' he said with a smile.
He wasn't the least bit reluctant to discuss his many concussions - mainly in a humorous vein.
''I still have a lot to give,'' he said, adding with a chuckle: ''I'm really working at stickhandling with my head up.''
Lindros, 32, prefers to play centre but says he'll skate at whatever position Pat Quinn wants. He's already met with the head coach to discuss his role.
''A lot of puck possession is what he's preaching,'' Lindros said. ''We'll wait for camp and get started.
''Hopefully we can have some success early and build on that.''
Lindros nearly joined the Leafs four years ago but a trade from Philadelphia collapsed at the last minute. Now he's finally on the team for which he's always wanted to play.
When Ferguson handed him a dark blue home jersey with 88 on the back, Lindros remarked that it must be ''a little dusty.''
Lindros grew up in London, Ont., watching Darryl Sittler and Borje Salming on TV and had a pair of pyjamas with Leafs emblems all over them. The family moved to Toronto when he was about eight. He spends a good part of his summers at a Muskoka cottage.
''This is great,'' he said. ''I'm really excited about it.
''It's obviously a dream come true. It's an absolute thrill. I've got a lot of friends here and it's an organization that's always contending. There's a desire to win. It's a hotbed of hockey. It's going to be a lot of fun here.''
Lindros consulted with a head injury specialist and had an MRI on his repaired shoulder to satisfy the Leafs he's fit to play.
''He's passed (the tests), he's here and we're glad to have him,'' said Ferguson, adding there are no performance bonuses in the contract.
''I wouldn't come back and play unless I thought I had something to contribute,'' said Lindros. ''I expect to play at a high level.''
Ferguson said Lindros should benefit from the NHL's intent to reduce obstruction.
''If the rules are called the way we've all discussed, it's going to be harder to impede a guy of that size and that skating ability of getting to the net, and we look forward to seeing him around the opponent's net with regularity,'' said Ferguson.
Lindros said he's optimistic about the Leafs' coming season.
''I see a team that can win,'' he said. ''Everybody will have to stay healthy and there'll have to be chemistry in the room but we can overcome the obstacles.''
Lindros recently purchased a downtown house 10 minutes from the arena, a tipoff as to where he intended to wind up when all the talk was done.
''(The contract) is only for a year but I'm looking forward to being here for many years to come,'' he said.
He realizes he'll be under a media microscope but doesn't mind.
''That forces you to excel,'' he said. ''It puts a little fire under the seats in the dressing room. You can work that to your benefit.''
Standing in the middle of an empty Leafs dressing room wearing his new sweater and talking to reporters after the formal news conference, Lindros again joked about his concussions.
''With all the concussions, it's hard to remember,'' he deadpanned in response to a question.
Carl Lindros, Eric's father and agent, said other teams were interested.
''Teams were still calling (Thursday) morning,'' he said. ''The interest really picked up.
''It's interesting how it worked out. But this is a good situation for him. It's what he wanted.''
Lindros is clearly not the player he used to be.
In the lockout-shortened 1994-95 season, he won the Hart Trophy as the league's most valuable player and the Lester B. Pearson Award as the most outstanding player as voted by his peers.
Concussions have taken a toll on the big forward, whose career has been filled with controversy.
In March 2000, he criticized Flyers trainers for not recognizing he'd suffered a concussion. Days later he was stripped of the captaincy.
He missed all of 2000-01 recovering from head injuries after a check by New Jersey's Scott Stevens in Game 7 of the 2000 Eastern Conference final gave him his sixth career concussion.
In November 2000, he had announced that the Leafs were the one and only team he wanted to be traded to. In February 2001, Toronto's board of governors approved a deal to get Lindros in a trade with the Flyers. Quinn, then GM as well as coach, said one day later the Flyers had pulled out of the deal.
The Flyers traded Lindros to the New York Rangers in August 2001 for Kim Johnsson, Jan Havac, Pavel Brendl and a third-round draft pick.
He scored 37 goals in his first season in the Big Apple but slipped to 19 in 2002-2003, and got only 10 while missing the majority of games in 2003-04 recuperating from the shoulder injury and from head injuries.
Lindros has played 678 career NHL games for the Flyers and the New York Rangers, scoring 356 goals, assisting on 461 and serving 1,285 penalty minutes.
He was the fifth-fastest in NHL history to reach 500 points, trailing only Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Peter Stastny and Mike Bossy.
He was on the 1992, 1998 and 2002 Canadian Olympic teams. But he wasn't asked to be on the 2004 World Cup team and hasn't been invited to the camp for players trying out for the 2006 Olympic team.
His salary as a Leaf is a far cry from the $8.5-million US qualifying offer he turned down from the Flyers prior to being traded to New York.