It's all about Eric.

Yeah, that's right. As much as the Rangers trumpet the signings of players like Sandy McCarthy and Andreas Johansson and Zdeno Ciger as moves that will elevate the club into a playoff team, none of those transactions will mean a thing if Eric Lindros cannot play -- and produce.

But you know what? Lindros has got to be the most exciting "if" in hockey right now. If you get past all the controversy that will shadow Lindros forever, no matter how hard the people at Madison Square Garden try to protect him from it, you see what Mark Messier calls "one of the top five players in the world." And you can't help but imagine the excitement at MSG "if" he plays at that level.

A lot's been made of Messier's influence on Lindros. Coach Ron Low says repeatedly, "Mark will not only make Eric a better player but a better person." Personally, I think Messier can only accomplish the latter. He can teach Lindros about accountability -- about how, in New York, everyone loves a standup guy. And if Lindros takes those lessons and puts them to use, Messier will have helped Lindros immeasurably.

As for the part about making Lindros a better player? I don't think that can happen at this point. On the ice, Lindros is going to have to be the difference-maker. He's going to have to play in all situations, even strength, man-up, man-down, and he's going to have to put up points.

Can he do it?

Oh yeah, of course he can. When he's been able to play, Lindros has been all but unstoppable, putting up 290 goals and 36 assists in 486 regular season games and another 24 and 33 in 50 career playoff games. And, at 28 he should be entering his prime.

The only bad numbers on the guy's resume are all those games missed, not just with the six concussions that have plagued him most recently, but earlier in his career when groin and back problems plagued him. He's only played more than 70 regular season games twice in his career, in '95-'96 and '98-'99 ... and his best season, his Hart Trophy campaign, came in '94-95, the year shortened by an owners' lockout.

All this stuff makes him, as I said, the most exciting "if" in hockey. Eric Lindros not only makes the Rangers better, it makes the Rangers good.

Perhaps even really good.

Jeff Bradley is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at jeff.bradley@espnmag.com.