The Forsberg drama

ShareThis

The Philadelphia Flyers may be the favorites, but Colorado Avalanche remain in the hunt for Peter Forsberg, and the list of their competitors keeps shrinking.Like game-show hosts, Forsberg and his agent, Don Baizley, have been eliminating contestants for the past week. The good news for the Avs is they haven't gotten a call. "I haven't talked to them in a little while, so I have not been informed," general manager Francois Giguere said Wednesday.First came Modo, Forsberg's Swedish league team. "I turned Modo down because my goal is to play in the NHL," Forsberg told a Swedish newspaper. "It is still going in the right direction and I have a new deadline to catch -- the 26th of February."That's the NHL trade deadline and the date rosters are frozen for the playoffs.Since then, various NHL clubs have been eliminated. Canada's TSN reported that Dallas, Detroit, San Jose, Pittsburgh, Calgary and Nashville have been informed they're out. This thing ought to be a reality TV show.Still reportedly alive: Philadelphia, Colorado, Anaheim, Ottawa and Vancouver.Baizley did not return my call Wednesday, but that's probably because he's tired of saying, "No comment." Tuesday, he told The Vancouver Sun, "We're just not in a position to say anything more than what's already out there. Peter is skating in Sweden and he's going to have to make a decision probably sometime soon."Whether there's anything Giguere can say or do to increase the Avs' odds isn't clear, but if there is, he should do it.Forsberg has played for both the Avs and Flyers. Presumably, he doesn't need much of a sales pitch from either organization. The Flyers went into Wednesday's action with four more points, but the Avs are looking to get back star forwards Paul Stastny, Ryan Smyth and Joe Sakic over the next month or so. Adding Forsberg to these reinforcements could bring back memories of the Avs' glory days."What we told them is when he makes up his mind on playing that we would be very interested," Giguere said. "My understanding from talking to Don is, if he plays, he's made the determination that he's going to play in the NHL, but he hasn't made the determination that his foot is healthy enough for him to play."And that's what he's trying to figure out by skating and just seeing if his foot can get to a point where he'll feel comfortable giving it one more shot."So why would the 34-year-old Forsberg eliminate contenders for his services before he even knows if there will be any services?"I would think that Peter wants to be real careful not to string people along," Giguere said. "I would assume that there is so much interest in him that he's going to narrow the field down to a manageable number of teams and then talk to those teams."There have been reports that Baizley wants a $5 million commitment for next season to go along with a prorated deal for the remainder of this season. The Flyers would probably need separate one-year deals to give them time to shed salary. The Avs, well below the salary cap, would not."We're in a situation now, because of the small portion of the season that's left, I would think financially the offers are going to be pretty similar," Giguere said. "He's going to go and make a determination on where he's going to play, if he's going to play, based on a place that he's going to feel comfortable with and feel he has a chance to win."I just think that our philosophy's always been the same. If there is any way that we can improve the team, we'll look at improving the team. And in our mind, if Peter would decide to play in Colorado, that would make us a better team, so we feel we have to look at that possibility."Even a semi-healthy Forsberg would provide a boost to an offense sapped of its vigor by injuries. And there's more than one reason for Avs management to pursue it.Winning, it turns out, is not all that matters in this competitive entertainment market. Despite all the injuries, the Avs have stayed in the playoff race. But they have slipped to 18th in the NHL in attendance, down from 13th last year. The injuries to Sakic, Smyth and Stastny have robbed them of their star power.A reunion of Sakic and Forsberg for one more stretch run -- and who knows, maybe two more -- would reinvigorate the Avs fan base.The conventional wisdom still says he'll choose Philadelphia, whose general manager visited him in Sweden last week and came away with no more of a clue than anybody else.The Avs are in it until they're out of it. They have more cap room than the Flyers. They need to pull out all the stops to make this sale.(Contact Dave Krieger at kriegerd@RockyMountainNews.com.)(Dave Krieger writes for the Rocky Mountain News at www.rockymountainnews.com.)