Markus Naslund once tried to recruit Peter Forsberg to the Canucks

Peter Forsberg was one of the greatest players of his generation, and if Markus Naslund got his way, they would have been teammates.

Forsberg and Naslund, who are from the same town of Ornskoldsvik in Sweden, have been friends since childhood. That continued throughout their brilliant NHL careers, though they never played on the same team.

But they had a chance to in 2005.

Coming out of the lockout-cancelled season in 2005, both Naslund and Forsberg were unrestricted free agents. Naslund had offers from other teams but chose to stay in Vancouver. Forsberg, on the other hand, was open to leaving Colorado.

In a recent interview with Geno Reda on the Overtime podcast, Naslund confirmed that he did try to bring Forsberg home.

“In hindsight, that’s the one thing I would have liked… is to play with Peter for an NHL season,” Naslund said. “I actually tried to get him to sign with Vancouver after the lockout in ’05, but with the rivalry we had with Colorado, he just couldn’t do that.”

The Canucks and Avalanche had a fierce rivalry in the early 2000s, but it was taken to another level when Todd Bertuzzi sucker-punched Steve Moore in 2004.

You have to wonder if that incident never happened whether the Canucks and Forsberg could have been a match.

Instead, the future Hall of Famer signed with the Philadelphia Flyers.

“That haunts me to this day”

The Canucks always seemed to disappoint in the playoffs during Naslund’s tenure. Whether his fault or not, it’s something he didn’t shy away from.

“We had a few rough years where we missed the playoffs. It was a good opportunity for us [in the post-Messier era] to show that we could get better and challenge the better teams in the west. Which I think we did. Unfortunately, we had a steady climb there, but for some reason, we just couldn’t put it together when it all counted, and that haunts me to this day because I think we had a good thing going.”

“Mess taught me”

Mark Messier is much maligned still to this day by Canucks fans, but Naslund spoke highly of the player he succeeded as captain in 2000.

“There’s a lot of things that Mess taught me and my teammates,” Naslund explained. “The one thing that stands out for me is how much he cared for the team and how he worked to get the team to gel together. And also how professional he was. He might have had a slump or not, you couldn’t tell. He was always team-first. Very classy individual that helped me a lot… Even though he was getting a little bit older, he was still a world-class player.”

Naslund and Messier were teammates for three seasons, with Naslund becoming the team’s leading scorer during Messier’s final two years in Vancouver.

One of the greatest players in Canucks history, Naslund sits third all-time in franchise scoring with 756 points, and second in goals (346). A consistent point-producer, Naslund led the Canucks in scoring seven times, which still stands as a franchise record.

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