Peter the Great

Yesterday marked the end of Peter Forsberg's NHL career, as he officially announced his retirement after a comeback that lasted two games.  Like all of the other times that he contemplated retirement, it was an injury that made the decision for him.  However, all of the injuries that he incurred over the years could not keep him from a likely Hall of Fame induction down the road.

A first round pick of the Philadelphia Flyers in 1991, he was a part of the now-infamous trade to Quebec (you know, the Eric Lindros trade).  He gained fame in 1994 as he netted the gold medal shootout winner in the 1994 Olympic Games for Sweden, a feat that was commemorated on a postage stamp in Sweden.  His first NHL season was in the lockout shortened year of 1995 and saw him win the Calder Trophy for rookie of the year.  The following year, he won his first Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche (ex-Quebec Nordiques) and gain recognition in subsequent years for playing with everything he had.  That style of play would cost him the latter half of the 2001 playoff run that saw the Avs win another Stanley Cup and the entire 2001-02 regular season.  He returned to the team for the playoff run and had the Avs even made the Stanley Cup Finals that year, he would have almost certainly taken home the Conn Smythe Trophy.  The 2002-03 season saw him take home the Hart Trophy as the MVP, but not the Pearson Trophy (MVP as voted by the players), as fellow Swede Markus Naslund took that honor.  After the lockout of 2004-05, he signed with the Flyers and play with them for a year and a half before being dealt to Nashville prior to the deadline in 2007.  He returned to the Avs the following season, but injuries made him half the player he was in his prime. His latest comeback this season lasted two games and didn't have the impact that he wanted, thus the retirement.

Forsberg was the second banana to Joe Sakic in the Quebec/Colorado franchise, but he could have easily been the superstar everywhere else.  His aggressive style of play, combined with a scorer's touch around the net, were a perfect compliment to Sakic's wrist shot, and combined, they gave other teams fits with two scoring lines capable of scoring at will.  Is Forsberg a Hall of Famer?  I'd say so because he had the ability to dominate the game at will, as evidenced by his 2002 playoff run.  Injuries played a factor in him not reaching the ceiling that he could have (sounds familiar for Lindros), but winning two Stanley Cups should push him into the Hall of Fame.