Peter Forsberg reveals he played his entire career with a debilitating condition.

The legend continues to grow.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 5 years ago
Peter Forsberg reveals he played his entire career with a debilitating condition.
Joel Marklund/Bildbyran/Zuma

It has been several years since National Hockey League legend Peter Forsberg played on hockey's biggest stage but in spite of that his legend, somehow, continues to grow.

During a recent interview in Sweden, the former NHL star revealed that he had been playing with badly impaired vision his entire life due to a congenital condition that greatly reduced his eyesight. Forsberg told interviewers that he operates with only 60% of normal vision in one of his eyes, suggesting that at times he could only distinguish players by the color of their jerseys. When you consider the level at which Forsberg played at his entire NHL career and the way he made his play at times seem effortless this is quite an amazing revelation.

In spite of his greatly reduced eyesight it was Forsberg's hockey sense and ability to see the game at a very high level that allowed him to detect players around the ice. Forsberg was asked if he felt that having full vision in his impaired eye would have made him a better hockey player, but he dismissed that notion entirely.

"I have not felt that there has been a problem. I can see with the left eye! I've see everything anyway," said Forsberg as per Sport Bladet.

"Then I have always said that I would fix my eyes after my career. But it never happened ...

"Does not matter"

In spite of Forsberg's humble response to questions about his career it's hard not to wonder what could have been if he had not been hampered by limited eyesight his entire career. When you consider that Forsberg recorded 249 goals and 636 assists for a total of 885 points in just 708 career NHL games, already quite lofty numbers, and had vision that was only matched by the true great players of the game, it would have been amazing to see that player at 100%. 

When pressed on the matter Forsberg did make one interesting argument for why having better vision may have actually shortened his career. Citing his difficulty, and distaste, for playing in front of the opposing net Forsberg indicated that he would have been forced to play in more of a scoring role, and would have risked being injured in front of the net more often as a result. 

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