Peter Forsberg

Lore & Background

Forsberg's 19-year professional career includes 13 years in the NHL, where he won two Stanley Cups with the Colorado Avalanche, as well as several individual honors including the Hart Memorial Trophy in 2003. As of the end of the 2017–18 season, he is the seventh-highest all-time Swedish point scorer in the NHL regular season. Before his short-lived comeback season in 2011, Forsberg never had a negative plus-minus rating, giving him an overall career rating of +238. Representing Sweden in international play, Forsberg competed in four Winter Olympics, two World Cups and five World Championships, as well as one European Junior Championship and two World Junior Championships, where he holds a scoring record of 31 points in seven games. He won four gold medals with Sweden, winning titles at the 1992 and 1998 World Championships and the 1994 and 2006 Winter Olympics. Combined with his two Stanley Cup championships, he is a member of the Triple Gold Club and the only Swede who has won each of the three competitions twice. In 2013, he was inducted to the IIHF Hall of Fame, and in 2014, he was elected into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

In Their Own Story

The Scotiabank Place crowd had been loud all evening, but there was a different quality to the noise when the puck dropped and Forsberg collected it at the blue line. He didn't rush. He never rushed. The home-side defenceman came in heavy, trying to bully him off the boards, but Pete simply turned his skates, let the puck roll along the toe of his blade, and was gone—three metres of open ice that suddenly looked like a runway. A Senators fan in the 200-level stood up without thinking, his beer forgotten in his hand, because the play was unfolding in that unhurried, inevitable way that only Forsberg could produce. He lifted his head, found a passing lane that hadn't existed a second ago, and the puck zipped through the air like a whispered secret. The goal that followed was routine. The way Pete skated to the bench, nodding slightly as if apologizing for the show, was not. The crowd roared, and for a few seconds the arena felt like it was holding its breath, savoring the fact that a player like this was still out here, still making the impossible look easy, still choosing to do it in Ottawa.

Reader's Guide

Forsberg debuted in 1990 with the junior squad of Modo Hockey. He was drafted sixth overall by the Philadelphia Flyers in the 1991 NHL entry draft. He was traded to the Quebec Nordiques as part of the Eric Lindros deal. He remained in Sweden playing for Modo until 1994. After the 1994–95 lockout, he made his NHL debut with the Nordiques and won the Calder Memorial Trophy. The Nordiques moved to Denver and became the Colorado Avalanche in 1995. Forsberg won the Stanley Cup with the Avalanche in 1995–96. He won the Hart Memorial Trophy in 2003. He never played for the Ottawa Senators.

Did You Know?

• Forsberg won the Guldpucken and Guldhjälmen awards in both 1993 and 1994 in Sweden.
• He scored 116 points in the 1995–96 regular season and 21 more in the playoffs.
• Forsberg is the only Swede who has won each of the Triple Gold Club competitions twice.
• He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2014.