If Peter Forsberg Says You Should Trade Matt Duchene, Then You Trade Matt Duchene
I don’t think there was anybody growing up who wasn’t a fan of Joe Sakic and Peter Forsberg. For kids who grew up playing NHL Hitz 2002, they’re both on your Mount Rushmore of favorite players in league history. But you still either had to be either more of a Sakic guy or more of a Forsberg guy. They could be 1A and 1B in your rankings but everybody leaned their own way between the two. Personally, I was more of a Forsberg guy. A little flashier than Joe. He’s Swedish and I think it’s easier as an American to love a Swede over a Canadian. Plus he was a JOFA guy for a while and I respected the hell out of that. So as a Forsberg guy, I’m inclined to agree with this beautiful son of a bitch when it comes to the Matt Duchene saga in Colorado.
DenverPost – During a Swedish broadcast of the Avalanche-New Jersey Devils game Saturday in Newark, N.J., former Avs center and Hockey Hall of Famer Peter Forsberg was a guest in-studio analyst and said Colorado should “bench and trade” disgruntled center Matt Duchene.
Now here’s the thing. You see the phrase “bench and trade” Duchene and you’d think Forsberg is upset with the guy or something. It’s kind of weird that he’d come out and push for the guy to be up in the press box until a deal is made but it’s more of a mercy thing than anything. He makes plenty of good points when he’s explaining himself.
“Put him in the stands. If I were playing with a player that I know doesn’t even want to be in the team, it’s not like he is going to throw himself on the ice and block shots with his head. It is mostly difficult to have a player like that in the team, although he is skillful and is doing his best. I would rather play with someone that wants to be there. I would put him on the bench and trade him.”
Forsberg also said a situation like Duchene and the Avalanche “takes energy from the rest of the team. I would trade him.”
Big time fan of Forsberg setting the standard for what makes a great teammate as “willing to block a shot with your head”. That’s a true Hockey Guy answer right there. But he’s right. It’s been said a thousand times at this point. The Colorado Avalanche aren’t going to get the best out of Matt Duchene the longer this goes on, they’re not going to get the best value in return the longer this goes on without a trade, and Matt Duchene isn’t going to have a chance to play his best hockey until a deal is finally reached. Literally everybody is losing in this situation right now and the people who are applauding Joe Sakic for sticking to his guns are the biggest idiots on planet Earth.
“Takes energy from the rest of the team”. Until the Avalanche either say they are forty-five billion percent not trading Duchene until his contract runs up, or they actually trade him then everybody on the Avs roster is stuck in limbo. Duchene has to keep living with his suitcase packed at all times. MacKinnon, who is a top 20 player in this league but can’t get any recognition due to the fact that Colorado is in disarray, has to constantly wonder about if or when a deal goes down. All of this has been said time and again at this point. It’s just a really weird ego thing for Sakic right now and I’m glad Forsberg isn’t afraid to chime in and say how ass backwards this has been handled.
The one thing I will say is that the Hockey Gods clearly have a sense of humor about this whole thing. Duchene getting the first goal of the Avalanche season against New York last week couldn’t have been scripted any better.
