Peter Forsberg

Peter Mattias Forsberg (born 20 July 1973) is a Swedish former professional ice hockey player and former assistant general manager of Modo Hockey.

Nicknamed "Peter the Great" and "Foppa", Forsberg was known for his on-ice vision and physical play, and is considered one of the greatest players of all time.

Although his career was shortened by persistent injuries,, he stands ninth all-time in career points-per-game and fifth all-time in career assists-per-game in the NHL, only behind Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Bobby Orr, and Connor McDavid.

Born ten days apart, the two were well-acquainted while playing on separate youth teams before joining on the regional Ångermanland all-star team for the under-16 TV-pucken national championship in 1988.

They went on to compete alongside each other at the junior and men's level for both Modo Hockey and the Swedish national team.

Forsberg and Näslund also attended high school together and had summer jobs at the age of 18 with the same electrical company that employed both Näslund's mother and Forsberg's father.

Growing up, Forsberg's idol was Elitserien and NHL star Håkan Loob.

"We play a good game but... they score their first two [goals] in power play, and that's not so strange; they have about 15 chances. I have to say that I'm so terribly disappointed of Börje; he is so fucking bad. He is so fucking bad that I would give him a hit. He increases the level when they've scored their two goals."

Forsberg debuted in 1990 with the junior squad of Modo Hockey, the club in his hometown Örnsköldsvik.

During the course of the season, he debuted with the senior team in the Elitserien, the highest-level professional ice hockey league in Sweden, and scored an assist in his only game.

In 1990–91, he scored 102 points in 39 games with the junior team and 17 points in 23 games with the senior team.

Forsberg was coached by his father for a significant part of his career: the two teamed up from 1991 to 1994 with Modo and later for the national team in the 1996 World Cup, 1998 Olympics and 1998 World Championship, which Sweden won.

Forsberg played minor hockey alongside boyhood friend Markus Näslund, who was also born in Örnsköldsvik.

At the end of the season, Forsberg was drafted sixth overall by the Philadelphia Flyers in the 1991 NHL Entry Draft, the first European player taken that year.

The draft pick was surprising because Forsberg was expected to be selected later in the draft.

The Hockey News had ranked Forsberg as the 25th best draft prospect in its 1991 draft preview, saying he was "a solid second rounder who could move into the first."

The pick was criticized by the Philadelphia media, prompting Flyers' General Manager Russ Farwell and the team's chief European scout Inge Hammarström to reply that time would prove them right.

Eric Lindros was the main attraction of the draft.

He was drafted first overall by the Quebec Nordiques but refused to sign a contract and, on advice from his mother, began a holdout that lasted over a year.

Forsberg was included in a deal that sent five players, two first-round draft picks, and US$15 million to the Quebec Nordiques in exchange for Lindros.

In hindsight, the Lindros trade is seen as one of the most one-sided deals in sports history, and the deal became a major foundation for the Nordiques/Avalanche franchise's success over the next decade.

Forsberg remained in Sweden, playing for Modo for the following three years.

He won four gold medals with Sweden in his career, winning titles at the 1992 and 1998 World Championships and the 1994 and 2006 Winter Olympics.

Combined with his two Stanley Cup championships in NHL play, he is a member of the Triple Gold Club and the only Swede who has won each of the three competitions twice.

In 1993, the team was eliminated in the playoffs quarterfinals against Malmö, but Forsberg won the Guldpucken for Player of the Year and the Guldhjälmen for Most Valuable Player of the Elitserien, an award decided by the players.

He won both prizes again in 1994 when, after barely making the playoffs, he led his team to their first final since winning the Elitserien playoffs in 1979.

In a five-game series, again against Malmö, Forsberg scored in overtime in Game 2 to put his team one win away from the title.

However, he suffered from the flu (influenza v) and Modo lost the remaining games of the series and the title.

By this point, Forsberg was thought to be the best player in the world outside the NHL.

After losing the deciding game 3–1, Forsberg expressed his frustration on the ice, first by breaking his stick and then in an interview where he criticised the game's referee, Börje Johansson, for giving Malmö many power plays, resulting in their first two goals, and then increasing the tolerance level.

Forsberg's words that he wanted to give Börje a hit has become popular in Swedish ice hockey areas.

Börje later denied calling the game in favor of Malmö and stated that Forsberg hadn't given him a hit.

During the summer of 1994, Forsberg decided to play in the NHL after previously signing a contract with the Quebec Nordiques in October 1993.

His 19-year professional career includes 13 years in the National Hockey League (NHL), where he won two Stanley Cups with the Colorado Avalanche, as well as several individual honors including the Hart Memorial Trophy in 2003.

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 that some say may never be broken.

In 2013, he was inducted to the IIHF Hall of Fame, and in 2014, he was elected into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Peter Forsberg was born in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden, the son of Kent Forsberg, a former coach of Modo Hockey and the Swedish national team.

In 2017 Forsberg was named one of the '100 Greatest NHL Players' in history.

As of the end of the 2017–18 season, he is the seventh-highest all-time Swedish point scorer in the NHL regular season.