Forsberg Nashville Bound

Big news in the NHL world. Peter Forsberg has been traded to the Predators, giving him and Paul Kariya another chance to work off one another--the last time both were injured. This time, who knows. Nashville has the slimmest of slim leads in the Western Conference, has been struggling of late, but if there has ever been a time for them to win, it is now. This trade automatically pushes them toward the top of the West in terms of contenders, which may sound like an odd-thing to say for the team that is in first, but Nashville, for all of their recent success, is still an unproven team yet to play further than the conference quarter-finals.

Until they can make at least to the conference finals, they are not the number one or two teams in the conference, which pre-Forsberg would have been the Red Wings and the Mighty Ducks. After that, the case would have been made for the Sharks, Stars, and the Flames, who because of their goaltending and experience, could have conceivably rated higher than Nashville. But not anymore. Nashville is the clear-cut number 3 team, and in the playoffs, anything can happen.

By adding the stellar, though oft under-rated and misrepresented by stats, playmaking abilities of Forsberg, the Predators have added a whole new spin to their game, as well as adding one more person who has won a Stanley Cup (they only had one--Jason Arnott--so this deal is huge for experience alone.) Hopefully his leadership, in conjunction with Kariya, will give some form and shape to the hunger that these young guys are feeling, and focus their energies come playoffs. After all, this may be the last go around for a player who I felt never has truly lived up to his potential, although he has had a great career, winning two Stanley Cups and well as an MVP award. All players in all sports want to end on top, and this is why Nashville traded away so much youth, for this one shot (to win and to sell tickets), and he will play his heart out so that if he does retire because of his hurt foot, he can do it as a champion.

He is only 32 years old as well, so there is plenty of hockey life in him. He had off-season surgery and while seeming a couple steps slower, he has begun to heat up in the last eleven games for the Flyers. If he can continue his starting-to-wake-up play, then watch out.

This was a trade I liked a lot. The Flyers aren't going to be doing anything, so they might as well sell off one of their top assets, in the last year of his contract, for draft picks and young players who have some potential in them. Sure the Flyers lose their captain, but it'll be all right. The organization will rise again, eventually (the Flyers always do), and so why not give one of the NHL's more exciting players a chance to win another one? A good deal for both, and I wish all the best to Nashville, who are now set to lose to the Devils in an exciting seven-game showdown.