Filip Forsberg has been one of the most underrated and underappreciated players in the entire league for the longest time. A huge reason for this is where his team, the Nashville Predators, is located in the league; set in the same conference as multiple bottom-feeder teams such as the San Jose Sharks and Chicago Blackhawks.
When looking at his stats for the season, 92 points in 80 games (46 goals and 46 assists), you would think he would be one of the more focused-on players in the league, however, that isn’t the case. The Swedish winger is largely undervalued to those on more dominant teams such as the Colorado Avalanche and Edmonton Oilers. With this in mind, here are some reasons why you should be focusing on Forsberg more.
Ten Predators Franchise Records are Held by Forsberg
With his hat-trick performance against the Blackhawks on April 12th, Forsberg holds the franchise’s single-season goal record sitting at 46. The record was formerly held by former linemate Matt Duchene with 43.
With this record broken, Forsberg now holds ten Predators franchise records; his largest feats include holding the organization’s number one spot in total goals scored, career game-winning goals, and total playoff points.
While the Predators franchise may still be relatively young, only being around for 26 years, holding that many records is hard to achieve, considering he had to compete with franchise legend David Legwand for the majority of them.
Forsberg has managed to set himself on the Mount Rushmore of the Predators franchise, gaining the respect of every Predators fan. Without Forsberg, the Predators would have been lucky to even see a glimpse of the postseason in the past ten years.
Forsberg Has Been Able to Compete with the Best of the League
As said earlier in the article, Forsberg has been able to tally over a point per game this season with no problem. His three-goal performance last night set him in seventh place for goal-scoring in the league. When looking at his competition, he has more goals than Hart Trophy contenders Nikita Kucherov and Connor McDavid.
He is four points out from tying William Nylander for a top-ten position in league points this season. Forsberg is also second in the league for game-winning-goals, with ten, two behind Brayden Point. Including these statistics in the argument, Forsberg is relatively comparable to Sam Reinhart, who has received a ton of praise this year.
Reinhart may have more goals than Forsberg, but the comparison is too great to be ignored. They are one of the most clutch players on their teams respectively, tallying the grand majority of game-winning-goals for their clubs. The two also have accurate attempts to goal counts when it comes to a shootout, both being either in an 80%-100% range.
Scoresberg is ‘Fil’thy With the Puck
Forsberg was given the nicknames Scoresberg and Filthy Fil by fans for good reason. He has been known to score beautiful goals, for example, his goal last season against the Philadelphia Flyers in which he scored on his backhand in between the legs.
In the 19-20 season, Forsberg joined Andrei Svechnikov as the league’s only player to manage to pull off a lacrosse goal. Forsberg was able to take the puck over Oilers’ former goaltender Mike Smith’s shoulder without a struggle.
While players like Auston Matthews and Connor McDavid have a right to be looked up as the best of the league, it would be highly unreasonable to not include Forsberg in the mix for a spot in the top-20.
More must-reads: