The Flyers are in Switzerland to play Lausanne HC at Vaudoise Arena on Monday (2 p.m. ET; NHLN, NBCSP+). They play the Chicago Blackhawks at O2 Arena, Prague, Czech Republic, as part of the 2019 NHL Global Series on Friday.
It was an easy trip to Lausanne for Forsberg, who moved to Zug, Switzerland, last August with his wife and their three children. He played 100 games for the Flyers from 2005 to 2007 and most of the off-ice staff from that time remains in place. Forsberg and his wife attended the wedding of senior director of team services Bryan Hardenbergh during the summer and is close with equipment manager Harry Bricker, who worked closely with Forsberg during his quest to find skates to fit his injured feet.
Forsberg's oldest son, Lennox, wanted to see the NHL. The drive took less than 2 1/2 hours.
"We really enjoy it," said Forsberg, who was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2014. "It's a beautiful place to live in Switzerland. And for us from Sweden, it's a 2 1/2-hour flight, no time change, I can watch Swedish TV. ... It gives us more time with the family because we have three young ones. Living in Sweden, there's always somebody calling and dragging us around."
What it also allows Forsberg to do is watch NHL games on the weekends with Lennox.
"Especially on Saturday nights or Sundays, you can watch at regular time," he said. "A 1 p.m. game (in North America) is 7 p.m. here, so that's great. So weekends we can watch a game or two."
Forsberg bought into 4sports Hockey AG, a sports agency that represents a several NHL players, among them San Jose Sharks forward Timo Meier, and defenseman Hampus Lindholm and forward Rickard Rakell of the Anaheim Ducks.
He also tries to keep up with the Flyers and Colorado Avalanche, the two teams he played for during most of his NHL career. Forsberg also played 17 games with the Nashville Predators after being traded by the Flyers on Feb. 15, 2007.
"I follow those two teams, still have great contacts with both of them," he said. "I had a good time with both organizations, even if we didn't do as good as probably wanted with Flyers. But other than that, it was great."
