Forsberg: The Solution To Your PR Crisis

Say you're Bryan Murray. Your team was humbled in the Stanley Cup Finals, where the only guy who showed up was the goalie no one thought could get the team to the Finals in the first place. In the off-season, you've witnessed a new coach taking your old job behind the bench, the defections of C Mike Comrie (Islanders) and D Tom Preissing (Kings) as free agents and the rest of the Eastern Conference's powerhouses reloading quickly.

What do you do? Obviously, you let Don Brennan of the Ottawa Sun know that you've contacted Don Baizley, agent for Peter Forsberg, and made him aware that the Senators would love to be in the Foppa business:

"He's not ready to play at this point because of health issue, but I talked to his agent and told him we're interested," Murray said of the skilled, albeit injury-riddled playmaker. "He's still a ways away from making a decision on where he'll play, or even if he'll play.

"There should be a number of reasons why we'd be one of the teams he may be interested in joining. I hope he thinks we have a good team, that we got to the final and we have a chance to do it again, and I think Daniel Alfredsson is his friend. I think there are things in our favour."

Ottawa joins a list of potential suitors for Forsberg that, at last count, could fill its own conference playoff bracket. Two things about the UFA center's return to the NHL have been widely speculated this off-season: That his eventual destination should be either Detroit, Colorado or Philadelphia, and as Adrian Dater of the Denver Post speculated, whoever offers one last big payday could be the determining factor in his decision. After checking my atlas, I discovered that the Senators do not call either Detroit, Colorado or Philadelphia home. They also can't afford Forsberg without having to create some cap space, as Murray told the Ottawa Sun.

Despite being a Cup contender, Ottawa just doesn't seem to fit the profile for what Forsberg and his agent desire. But hey, you can't blame Murray for trying: When your biggest off-season addition is a 38-year-old defenseman playing for his fourth team in three years, dropping Forsberg's name months before he's ready to play is a nice distraction.