After Tearing MCL in Both Knees, Can Anton Forsberg Return to Form This Fall?

Anton Forsberg is now the Senators only experienced NHL goalie, but will he be able to rally after his painful, nasty injury in February? Forsberg provided a post-season health update.

Senators' goalie Anton Forsberg waited such a long time to find his first permanent NHL home. And that's what made it extra disappointing to see Forsberg – just 28 games into his first serious NHL contract – being stretchered off the ice in February with torn MCLs in both knees. 

Forsberg's long road to NHL career stability began way back at the 2011 NHL Draft. For context, that was the year the Senators had three first-round picks. That draft didn't go quite as spectacularly as 2020, when they snared the holy trio of Tim Stutzle, Jake Sanderson and Ridly Greig in round one. In 2011, they got Mika Zibanejad, Stefan Noesen, and Matt Puempel. Zibanejad is the one that got away, and now a smash hit on Broadway. Noesen has become a solid player in Carolina, and Puempel is an Augsburg Panther in the German League. 

The Sens didn't think for a moment to use a 2011 first rounder on Forsberg and, by round seven, still didn't see him as an option. Most teams didn't. The Sens went with defenceman Jordan Fransoo, who never got into a pro game at any level. Two picks later, Columbus basically threw a dart at the board and claimed the Forsberg kid 188th overall.

Two years later, the Blue Jackets brought Forsberg to North American and set him up in the AHL, where he spent most of his days until a trade to Chicago in 2017. He was then waived five times by four teams until he finally earned full-time work in Ottawa. Last year, at age 29, the Senators gave him the payday and security he and his family had waited nine years for – a three-year deal worth $8.25 million. 

They never dreamed his first season would end the way it did, so painfully and awkwardly, and being hauled off on a stretcher.

The injury was a total fluke. With the Sens facing Edmonton in Ottawa, Forsberg had fallen backward during a goal-mouth scramble, his legs still in in the butterfly position. Oiler forward Zack Hyman was nudged from behind by Travis Hamonic and fell right on top of Forsberg.

Suffice to say, legs aren't meant to bend that way.

"It was painful," Forsberg told the media last Friday. "I was a little bit scared there for a while because (my knees) kind of went numb."

With the pain giving way to numbness, Forsberg briefly thought maybe he was going to be okay. Then his hope gave way to embarrassment, as he thought about what people would say about him. Here he was being stretchered off one night and then maybe starting the very next game? Forsberg chuckled as he shared the story, and how doctors quickly put that notion to rest. It was two torn MCLs.

But now, just over two months later, Forsberg is healing up beautifully.

"I feel like if we were still in it right now, I'd be back skating (in full gear)," Forsberg said. "So my knees are good, I feel good and I'm going to go into normal summer training."

That's music to Pierre Dorion's ears. Since he's cut ties with Cam Talbot, Forsberg is now the only goalie on the team with any meaningful NHL experience.

"Anton Forsberg will be one of the goalies next year," Dorion said. "The other guy will either be (found) internally, through trade or through free agency."

A shopping trip seems likely. Dorion acquired Talbot because he wasn't totally comfortable with a younger goalie like Filip Gustavsson being the only insurance behind the healthy version of Forsberg. 

So it stands to reason Dorion might also have reservations about an even younger goalie like Mads Sogaard being the only insurance behind the refurbished version of Forsberg.