Filip Forsberg Haunts My Life

Filip Fucking Forsberg. That name brings so much hurt to my heart every time I hear it. Filip. Fucking. Forsberg. He haunts my life.

To most, he’s the Predators young superstar who has been putting on a clinic this postseason, with 8 goals, 7 assists, and a +17 through 16 playoff games. At only 22 years old, he just had his 2nd consecutive 30+ goal season. He’s a bonafide NHL superstar, and will be for years and years to come.

And the worst thing is, he could have been ours. He was ours. And we gave him away.

We fucking gave him away.

He was ranked the #1 European skater by pretty much everyone.

He was ranked as high as the #1 best prospect in the 2012 draft, and no lower than #4 (source)

And what did the Caps, who were building around Ovi and Backstrom do with the missing piece of the puzzle? Traded him for Martin Erat. The Caps were desperate…no let me rephrase that..General Manager George McPhee was desperate to make the playoffs in the lockout shortened year, so he panicked and traded Filip Forsberg to Nashville for Martin Erat. And how did Martin Erat pan out?

He played 62 games in a Caps sweater and scored 2 goals. Look, George McPhee made a lot of good trades and a lot of good draft picks for the Caps. He built a pretty good, a really good team through the draft. But this trade, man. It’s a tough pill to swallow.

I know hindsight is 20/20. Lots of young prospects never pan out. Erat was a seasoned veteran who would supposedly add immediate help. And the Caps went 11-1-1 that season in April and made the playoffs.

But man. Man oh man. Can you imagine if we had Forsberg? Probably wouldn’t have brought in Oshie, but that would have been a fine tradeoff. Having Ovechkin and Backstrom in their primes, and then 25 year old Kuznetsov and 22 year old Forsberg locked up long term?

Instead, we got Erat and Latta, neither of whom are still in the organization. Forsberg is leading the Predators to the Stanley Cup Finals, and Caps fans are wondering why only bad things happen to us.

Of course, that trade isn’t why the Caps have been so unsuccessful and unable to make it out of the 2nd round. I mean, we still won back to back Presidents Trophies. This team made do without him just fine. He certainly isn’t the reason the Caps haven’t been to the ECF since ‘Nam. But every time I see him on TV, scoring goals for Nashville, it’s like seeing Bloody Mary in the mirror. Just vicious flashbacks, Butterfly Effect style, wondering what could have been.

PS: And to make it even sicker, now I’m going to have root for him, to beat Pittsburgh.