Once a waiver wire pickup, Forsling now considered among NHL's best blueliners

Things are still sinking in for Florida Panthers defenseman Gustav Forsling.

Last week he helped Florida win the franchise’s first Stanley Cup.

A career accomplishment that only a fraction of players to make it to the greatest hockey league in the world get to feel.

“To be honest, I don't think I've really understood it yet,” Forsling admitted on Friday. “It's been very quick, I feel like, and it's hard to wrap that around my head right now. It's a very good feeling, and I've worked very hard to be in this position. I've been very fortunate to play on a very good team that's had a very great success in the playoffs and the regular season, so I'm very blessed to be in this position.”

Winning the Stanley Cup wasn’t the only life-changing event that Forsling experiences over the past several months.

He and his wife Daniella welcomed their first child, an adorable little man named Bo, into the world in January.

A couple months later, the Panthers signed Forsling to an eight-year contract extension worth $46 million that will keep him and his family in South Florida through the 2031-32 season.

“It's very surreal, to be honest,” Forsling said. “Even the last week here, it's been very emotional. It's an unbelievable feeling. It's nothing I take for granted and it's something I've been working very hard for over the last couple of years here. I’m just very honored.”

Forsling’s ascension as an elite NHL defenseman has been incredible to watch since he first arrived in South Florida.

Panthers General Manager Bill Zito claimed Forsling off waivers in January of 2021, which is almost insane to think about considering the player he’s grown into.

From a waiver wire pickup to a max contract is the kind of turnaround rarely seen in sports, but Forsling has put in the work on and off the ice and earned everything he’s now enjoying.

That also includes the whirlwind of a week that he and his teammates have been experiencing since winning Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final on Monday night at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise.

They’ve taken the Stanley Cup up and down South Florida, sharing it with a fanbase that has been seemingly having just as much fun celebrating as the players themselves.

The festivities will culminate on Sunday with the Panthers Stanley Cup Championship parade, which will take over A1A along Fort Lauderdale Beach.

It’s expected to be a wild and crazy spectacle that Panthers fans have been waiting for since 1993.

“I've never been a part of anything like that before, so I’m very excited to see the all the fans and what they’ve got set up for us,” Forsling said of the parade. “I'm sure it's going to be a lot of fans, and it's going to be a good time. Just to be there with the Stanley Cup and the fans, I can't wait.”

According to Mayor Dean Trantalis, the city of Fort Lauderdale is expecting “a couple hundred thousand” fans to attend the parade.

See you there!

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