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First off, I don't know why he would have been asked about Sundin. He is not on the block. Next, I don't necessarily agree with his assessment. At this stage in their careers, I would take Mats. Forsberg cannot possibly stay healthy enough for a full season. His body is a wreck. The only chance the Wings gamble on Forsberg is for way less money and a shortened schedule, otherwise he is fool's gold. Mats is still very duable, in great shape, and within a talented system like the Wings, playing with first-rate talent like Zetterberg or Datsyuk, he would flourish. Let's remember one thing, Sundin has produced in an organization that has surrounded him with the likes of Antropovs, Ponikarovskys, 38 year-old Gary Roberts, Jonus Hoglund, the list goes on and on. All Sundin has ever done is play with class, lead by example, and produce with less than stellar mates. In their prime, I would have taken Forsberg. You can't argue his grit and production at crunch time. Now, it is a very different story. Lidstrom probably said Forsberg for two reasons, first, he is better friends with Peter and secondly, he realizes that there is little chance of Sundin leaving anyway, so why offend a player who may want to join as a free agent?

If we get Forsberg and Morozov... Our forwards will be just amazing...

The more obvious reason? Forsberg has won, a lot. Sundin hasn't!

Forsberg winning has a lot to do with playing with Joe Sakic, Adam Foote, Adam Deadmarsh, Chris Drury, Rob Blake, Patrick Roy, Claude Lemieux, Alex Tanguay, Milan Hejduk, Ray Bourque as Sundin was playing with Jonus Hoglund, Robert Reichel, Travis Green, Igor Korolev, Nik Antropov and many others...etc. Blaming Sundin for not winning in Toronto is ridiculous Roamer. Yes, I know Peter the Great is a legend. But, Mats Sundin is a great player, and not winning in Toronto is very common. How do you rate Doug Gilmour, Darryl Sittler, Borje Salming, Wendel Clark and some other fantastic Leafs who failed to win a Cup in T.O? You know it wasn't their fault either, but a less than stellar supporting cast. None of those guys played on a team with as much Hall of Fame talent as the Avalanche did when they were racking up Cup victories.

I take Forsberg every day of the week. He may not be the healthiest of players nowadays, but he's still a better choice than Sundin, not even counting the fact that Mats isn't available.

Yeah, joec, he had a better team around him than Mats has had, I very much agree with you, but there was many a playoff series that Forsberg simply carried his team through. He won the Conn Smythe as playoff MVP, remember. What has Sundin won? A Gold Medal for Sweden, whom he always seems to play better for than the Leafs. Forsberg's heart has never been questioned - Sundin's has rarely been found.

Give the Wings Forsberg, and they'll give you a chance to take their picture as they lift the Cup over their heads!

No matter what.....Forsberg will get injured no matter what.....He's just simply too brittle for todays NHL.,,,,,

Joec are you on drugs? you say alot of his winning had to do with the team and guys he was around. wow man, you just put down one of the best skaters and puck handlers there has been. This guy is going to skate easily into the HOF, he doesn't even have to play anymore. In his prime before getting hurt he was unstopable. It didn't matter who he played with he was dominate. So if his injuries are gone then there is no question he is better tha sundin..sundin was never and i mean never better than Peter.

someone should pinch Lindstrom. He's dreaming

I think all those guys mentioned above won the cup BECAUSE they played with Peter Forsberg, not the other way around. Peter was skilled, physical, mean, tenacious, agressive, smooth. You coul not move him of the puck with a bulldozer. He had the ability to create something out of nothing. He could score almost at will and would always come through when the Av's needed it. And......his best quality? He never ever quit on a play or on his teammates. As good a player as Sundin is, the same cannot be said of him.

PETER ..... AGAIN, JUST PLEASE STAY HOME AND PLAY FOR YOUR PEOPLE THERE, EVEN IF YOU PLAY HALF A GAME A WEEK THEY WILL LOVE IT AND THEY SURE DESERVE IT!

JOEC 100% RIGHT.

UOFAMRULES I DONT THINK HE SAID SUNDIN IS BETTER, BUT RIGHT NOW WOULD BE BETTER CHOICE(IF AVAILABLE) THEN PETER. WE ALL KNOW, I THINK, HE WILL EASILY SKATE IN HOF.

ROAMER IT WASNT JUST PETER, THOSE TEAMS FOR COUPLE YEARS IN COLO WERE JUST AMAZING. ONE OF THE BEST EVER FROM A-Z

Hey guys, down please. I never once said that Mats was better than Forsberg. Read my entry again. Forsberg was a tremendous talent. My point, if you read properly, was that he had an outstanding cast. The Avs had the best clutch goalie of all-time, they had the best defenceman of his generation (even in his latter years, Bourque was still dominant), they had Burnaby Joe (ConnSmythe winner, MVP of the Olympics) and a stellar cast of others. Did I say they carried Forsberg? Where did you guys read that? I am curious. My point was, and still is that Colorado had a dynasty, a team of elite talent, which unquestionably helped Forsberg. Mats has never been close to a dominant club like those Avs. However,
at THIS STAGE, Sundin is better. Because of health. Not because he is , or has been more talented. Just look at the last three years, not the past 10. Peter, because he WAS a one man wrecking crew, is now a physical mess. Sundin has very little problem staying healthy and is still very productive, playing much younger than his 36 years of age. I have said that Forsberg to Detroit makes sense if they shorthen his schedule to make him ready for the playoffs. If not, there is ZERO, hear me guys? ZERO chance he is healthy for the long haul. And thank you WSBK for reading my article properly, at least somebody got the jist of what I attempted to say.

And please don't retort with the sentence ... "well, if Peter was healthy"...If my grandma didn't have aplastic hip, she could still do a mean maramba, but it ain't happenin'. Deal with the present day, broken down Forsberg. Don't get all sentimental and wish you can rewind the clock 5-6 years. His ankles will never recover. He has at least half a dozen serious operations on them. He is stuck with them. I loved his style of play and heart too, but at this stage of his career, just recognize his limits.

When healthy ( a big when), the best two way player of the last decade. No question. Game changer. If you question, ask Wings fans.

they had Bourque for a season and a half, joec. Rob Blake and Adam Foote certainly had more of an impact on the successes of the Avs. Also, a pretty good argument can be made for Marty Brodeur about clutchest tender of all time, but I understand the argument. But my real response to what you say comes from you last blurb. You say Forsberg is a mess because of how he played in the past, and that Sundin is still fine. As far as I am concerned, you make my point for me. Sundin is heartless - he won't go into the corners, and the only times you see him get "physical" are the times when he matches up against other, smaller, Europeans. He provides a bad example as a leader of a club by choosing his spots like that...and that is a major reason the Leafs don't win. Players used to take rebates to play with Stevie Y in Detroit (fact, don't bother arguing), thye demand MORE to go to Toronto. People salivate about playing with Forsberg - look what he did in spot duty for Simon Gagne's career in Philly - he's all of a sudden a 40 goal scorer. I'll take a player that leaves it all on the ice everytime over a player that is always afraid to hit the corners. Forsberg does what it takes for his team to win, Sundin does what it takes for himself to look good. Easy decision, as far as I am concerned.

I agree and disagree with some points up here but to stick with what is proposed in the article I will say this. And YES, I'm an AVS fan before I say anymore.

1.) Seeing Peter in a Wings uniform would make me vomit and require me to sell all my Forsberg hockey cards (Including 3 rookie cards/ one graded) at a very cheap price.

2.) IF Peter went to Detroit I don't believe his health would be that much of an issue because he would be in more of a "support" role than he has ever been in before. The Wings don't really "need" Peter but his addition to the locker room and just the confidence he would give any line he played with would be priceless. In Colorado he was a target and a leader of a line. In Detroit he wouldn't be such a marked man as he was in Colorado. (Even being a marked man he made a lot of defensivemen look foolish and goalies as well)

3.) As stated previoulsy...Sundin isn't even on the blocks so who cares?

GoCanada,
Good points about his leadership. But, I will have to repeat, Forsberg the player NOW is not as good as Sundin. Yes, you are right, no question when reflecting on careers, Peter gets the nod, rather easily. But, right now, Sundin is better. Forsberg will never be 100% again, and any team that pays him (like Philly, Nashville) to be a saviour is just stupid.

My only other point, and I don't think it was outrageous, is that Mats has always played on teams where he was head and shoulders above his support talent. That is all. I never said he was Peter's equal. Just cut him some slack. It isn't an exactly fair comperison when Peter got to play with several future Hall of Famers and other really good hockey players (Hejduk, Lemieux, Drury, Tanguay, Kamensky etc,) Any of these players would have most likely been the next best player on Toronto, instead of fifth, sixth or seventh best on an incredibly gifted Avs club. Pierre Lacroix did an outstanding job of buliding a perennial champ in Colorado.

Mats Sundin has never played overly physical. However, you can't blame him for his natural tendency. Many great players were not necessarily physical. How many guys have you seen Joe Sakic run over? How about Dale Hawerchuk? Gilbert Perreault? Jean Beliveau was a player everyone feared for different reasons, but he was always described as a "gentleman". Does this mean he was less a player than others?

Sundin is a classy player who doesn't have a lot of sandpaper to him. In Canada, we tend to gravitate to guys who love to bang and score, drop the mitts. Trust me, I was a huge Wendel Clark fan, too! There are loads of players that play a finesse type game and lead by example in different ways, other than fighting or knocking guys over or generally causing havoc.

You have made several great points about Forsberg. I agree with all of them. Just remember not to be too harsh on Sundin because he is a different type of player, nontheless a great one.

JOEC...thanks for mentioning Kamensky (13)...a lot of people never mention or even remember him and he was very talented. Not Sundin or Forsberg talented but a great skater with excellent hands.

There are three players who earned special monikers in recent years: Wayne Gretzky "The Great One," Mario "The Magnificent" and Peter "The Great." There are a few others that deserve them as well: Mark Messier, Steve Yzerman and Joe Sakic. All these players had some things in common: They were fierce competitors, they made everyone they played with better and they're all winners. They have won the Stanley Cup more than once and won just about every award you can think of. They are in a class by themselves. Sundin is a good player but he is not in that class!

JOEC .... RIGHT ON MONEY AGAIN.
WHAT IS IT WITH YOU GUYS KNOCKING SUNDIN DOWN? IF YOU FORGET JAGRS 2YEARS IN DC, SUNDIN IS SIMPLY THE BEST PLAYER IN NHL ON THE WORST TEAM(FOR WHILE NOW). IF YOU WATCH HIM IN INTERNATIONAL GAMES ALSO, WORLD TURNEYS, OLYMPICS .... YOU KNOW HE IS DEFINATALY IN THE CLASS. ITS NOT JUST WINNING THAT PUTS YOU IN THE CLASS, THATS LIKE SAYING WHAT DID JOE SAKIC WON LATELY IN NHL? EVEN THE GREAT ONE DIDNT WINN DAMM THING ON **** TEAMS...
I THINK PEOPLE GET WAY TO WRAPED UP IN WINNING RINGS(AND DUMB STATS) ON A TEAM TO JUDGE INDIVIDUAL PLAYER.

GOCANADA ...... YOU HAVE SOME GOOD POINTS AS WELL. AND AGAIN NOBODY HERE EVER SAID SUNDIN IS BETTER THEN FOPPA, RIGHT NOW HE CAN GIVE HIS TEAM MORE. SHOULD PETER BE 100% THIS POST WOULD NEVER EXIST!