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Peter Forsberg: Should he stay or should he just go away?

Image (1) peterforsberg2-thumb-250x375-17574.jpg for post 14800

The other day we mentioned for you that Peter Forsberg (you remember him don’t you?) was looking to get healthy once again and trying to play for his Swedish team MoDo. We speculated a little bit about what that would do for the annual rumors of Forsberg returning to North America and giving the NHL one more go for old time sake and apparently we weren’t alone in doing so. Adrian Dater of the Denver Post opined about Foppa and got a little wistful for the Avalanche days of yore.

You always have to wish Foppa nothing but the best and hope the medical gods give him a break. Here’s hoping.

Question is: would the Avs want him back, if Foppa said he wanted to play in Denver? I’m sure the one guy they’d listen to, even in their youth movement, would be No. 21. Odds are probably higher he’d end up in Philly or New York or Washington, but you know Denver will always be where Foppa’s heart is.

It’d be a romance novel if it was written any sweeter than that. Of course, what fun would it be if there wasn’t someone taking the opposing view. Enter From The Rink’s Mike Chen who pens his own letter to Peter Forsberg kindly asking him to stay away.

I know you may feel like giving it one more try with Modo, but how many times have we heard this now? It’s not the way it’s supposed to be, but that’s the harsh reality of it. Despite being robbed by injuries, you’ve still got a hockey career that few can match. Is there a reason to give it one more chance? It can’t be money; you’ve never been the money-grubbing type and besides, you’ve certainly got plenty of it (despite that failed Crocs investment; we’ll just pretend that never happened). If it was money you were after, I’m sure your agent would be calling the KHL but that doesn’t seem to be happening.

So I’m sure it’s about personal pride and love of the game. But to us outsiders, love of the game means letting it go. Let us remember this Peter Forsberg, not the guy who kept hanging on. Let your legacy be the guy who won two Stanley Cups and dominated the league for much of the 1990s and early 2000s, not the guy who has become a running joke among hockey fans.

Running joke might sound a bit harsh but after going through this routine each of the last few years with Peter Forsberg, it stings with the truth. Forsberg was a great player, and a polarizing one. You either loved his skills and ability to score at will or you despised him for his ability to sneak in a cheap hit or take a dive to get a call. Love him or hate him, the guy was other-worldly talented. Now he’s a guy with a perpetually injured foot who saw his career shortened because of nagging injuries.

Forsberg did give it another go during the past Olympics in Vancouver and seemed to be more of a hindrance to his Swedish line mates than a helper. If he couldn’t blend in well with the likes of Henrik Zetterberg and Daniel Alfredsson, what’s he going to do when playing the pivot on a line with say Alexander Semin, Marian Gaborik or Claude Giroux? Chances are he’d have a hard time keeping up with those guys and with the way the NHL is played now, the chances of Forsberg getting re-injured here are sky high. It’s probably best that Forsberg sit this one out, at least in the NHL, because turning into the bizarro Brett Favre is probably not how anyone imagined Peter Forsberg’s legacy turning out.