When Lindros was 10, his family moved from London, Ontario, to Toronto and moved into a home near North Toronto Arena. Anweiler was a maintenance man then. He remembered Lindros' father renting the ice at 7 a.m. on Tuesdays to put Lindros and his brother, Brett, through drills before school. He remembered Lindros in his early teens playing for the Toronto Young Nationals and packing the building beyond its official capacity of 1,400.
"By then everybody knew about him," Anweiler said. "He was a big kid on the ice, and he was the best kid on the ice."
At 15, Lindros went off to play Junior B for the St. Michael's Buzzers and the rest is history. But for years, his parents continued to rent ice on occasion at North Toronto Arena, or Lindros would rent ice himself and bring guys to skate.
"His parents were great to us when he was playing here," Anweiler said. "His mom and dad were always really nice people. … He's a rink rat. That's what he is."
Lindros wasn't around much when he played for the Philadelphia Flyers from 1992-93 through 1999-2000. But while he was sitting out the 2000-01 season, Anweiler wrote a note on his stationery and mailed it to Lindros' father, saying the ice was available if Lindros needed it. One day, Lindros showed up with the note in his hand and started renting the ice again.
When there was no NHL season in 2004-05, Lindros and Tie Domi organized skates at North Toronto Arena that included NHL players Gary Roberts, Curtis Joseph and Kris Draper.
Nowadays Lindros skates at another rink on Tuesday nights and at North Toronto Arena on Thursday mornings. Anweiler leaves the snack bar open so Lindros can make himself coffee. Lindros plays shinny with a group that includes former NHL players Darcy Tucker, Tomas Kaberle and Nick Kypreos.
But they don't just play shinny.
They practice first.
For 15 or 20 minutes, they do drills -- handling the puck, passing back and forth, skating circles, shooting on the goalies.
How many Hall of Famers practice for the sake of practicing?
"It's unbelievable to see," Anweiler said. "Buddies of mine will come here and watch them, and they can't believe it."