Peter Forsberg was a beast in his prime.
The Swede had injury troubles for most of his career, but he was almost impossible to stop when he was healthy.
Forsberg scored 885 points in 708 games during his NHL career, and his impressive 1.25 points-per-game is in the top ten most in league history.
But Forsberg was also a player who delivered when it mattered the most.
Forsberg had 171 points in 151 postseason games, and during his Hall of Fame career, he won two Stanley Cups, both with the Colorado Avalanche.
But he never won the Conn Smythe Trophy.
Forsberg won the Calder Trophy in 1994-95 and the Art Ross Trophy in 2002-03, but he was never awarded MVP in the playoffs.
However, he did have the most points in the playoffs on two different occasions. But both those times, in 1999 and 2002, the Avalanche didn’t reach the Stanley Cup Finals. The Swede is the only player since 1999 to lead the playoffs in points without reaching the final.
Colorado lost Game 7 in the Conference Final against the Dallas Stars and Game 7 against the Detroit Red Wings in 2002. Both times, the team that eliminated the Avalanche went on to win the Cup.
”If we had reached the final in 1999 or 2002, I could’ve won the Conn Smythe,” Forsberg told Swedish Expressen.
In 2002, Forsberg scored a whopping 27 points in 20 games. But as the Avalanche never reached the final, the Conn Smythe was awarded to Detroit’s Nicklas Lidstrom.
One year earlier, Forsberg had led the NHL in playoff points after two rounds, but then he ruptured his spleen, and was forced to surgery. The Avalanche went on to win the Stanley Cup, without Forsberg in the team, and the Conn Smythe was awarded to Patrick Roy.
Had Forsberg been healthy during the Cup run, he would probably been the winner of the award.
”I wanted to play Game 6 in the Finals, but our general manager stopped me. It was tough, but we won and I still think that I helped my team to achieve that,” Forsberg said.
He may be disappointed that he never won the Conn Smythe.
Still, he’s the only player in a very long time to lead the league in playoff points without reaching the final, and that’s an accomplishment that speaks volumes about how incredibly talented he was.
