The Chicago Blackhawks and fans will remember fumbling the bag on Gustav Forsling for a long time. He played 122 games for the Blackhawks between 2016-19 as a second to third pairing defenseman when he was 20-22 years old, but the team let him slip through their fingers and the Florida Panthers took advantage.
At age 24 when he returned to the NHL, Forsling immediately made a much larger impact than he had at any point with the Blackhawks. A big part of that was because he was more developed and Chicago didn't wait for that.
Forsling isn't an offensive juggernaut, but he is still a threat to produce, scoring 10+ goals and 30+ points in each of the past four seasons. The 29-year-old is a +45 on Florida and now regularly and easily plays over 22 minutes per game on average.
Forsling pretty quickly went from someone placed on waivers to being a two-time Stanley Cup winner and a player signed for eight years at $5.75 million AAV, which is a big steal by the way. He blocks many shots and hits while also sporting a very good takeaway/giveaway ratio for a defenseman. He also logs plenty of minutes on the penalty kill where he is effective.
In the past two seasons, Forsling has placed ninth and 13th in Norris Trophy voting while the Blackhawks have finished second last in the league. The NHL Network ranked the top-20 defensemen in the league and Forsling, of course, found his name pretty high among d-men around the NHL. He ranked 12th, accounting for offense and defense as this ranking is overall play.
Forsling was ranked ahead of players like Jake Sanderson, Thomas Harley, Shea Theodore, Adam Fox, and Devon Toews.
The Blackhawks do have Alex Vlasic, who reminds me of Forsling, and Chicago didn't mess things up with their young d-man this time around. The Blackhawks are in a good place with their young defensemen, but Forsling will be a fumble long remembered and used as what not to do.
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