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Nashville Predators general manager David Poile asked an interesting question in the immediate aftermath of the Peter Forsberg trade Thursday night.

Poile wondered: Has there ever been a better rental player traded at the National Hockey League deadline — and his conclusion was, probably not.

It would depend, of course, upon how you would compare Forsberg, a future Hall Of Famer and two-time Stanley Cup champion to, say, Raymond Bourque, who is already in the Hall Of Fame and in most people's minds, might be among the top half-dozen defencemen ever to play the game.

In the twilight of his career, Bourque took the unprecedented step of asking the Boston Bruins to trade him to a contender so that he could have a chance of winning a Stanley Cup. The Bruins obliged him at the March, 2000, trading deadline, sending Bourque and Dave Andreychuk to the Avalanche in exchange for a fairly impressive package of players (Brian Rolston, Sami Pahlsson, Martin Grenier) plus a first-round draft choice — a deal not unlike the one Poile made with the Philadelphia Flyers, in which he gave up the rights to two former first-rounders (Scottie Upshall and Ryan Parent), plus a 2007 first-rounder and a conditional third-rounder, which Philadelphia would get if Nashville re-signs Forsberg in the offseason. That might be a pivotal decision for the Predators if their attempt to win the Stanley Cup this spring comes up short — because that's what happened to Bourque in his rent-a-player season as well.

It's easy to forget that in Bourque's first season with the Avalanche, they were eliminated by the Dallas Stars by a single goal in the seventh game of the Western Conference final (although Bourque almost forced overtime in the dying seconds of that thrilling concluding game). It wasn't until the following year — after Bourque had agreed to sign again with the Avalanche for one more season (and dramatically disrupt his family life as a result) — that Colorado won, and Bourque finally got that chance to lift the Cup.

The one thing that should make Forsberg's transition to Nashville easier is that he has been on the other side of the player-rental equation often in his career. That's because Colorado, his former employer, unfettered by salary-cap restraints, took great delight in wading into the rental market virtually every year in an effort to bulk up for the playoff run. They could do so, for the same reason that Nashville was able to scoop up Forsberg 12 days before the actual trading deadline — because they had assets to exchange, thanks to a deep farm system and an ability to draft well.

Not every one of those moves eventually paid off in a championship, however. In 1999, the Avalanche acquired Theo Fleury from the Flames and gave up a pair of players, Rene Corbet and Wade Belak, that did nothing for Calgary, but also cost them a prospect named Robyn Regehr, who has been a integral part of their defence ever since. That deal was a monumental bust.

However, their gambling ways paid off big time in 2001, after they acquired Rob Blake and Steve Reinprecht from the Los Angeles Kings for Aaron Miller, Adam Deadmarsh and a first-round pick. The Avalanche immediately won a championship in Blake's rent-a-player season and he was an integral part of the organization until they parted ways last summer over cap issues.

Mostly though, the history of rent-a-player deals in the past decade or so tends to favor the sellers, not the buyers. In 2002, the Philadelphia Flyers parted with their first-, second-, and third-round picks in that year's entry draft to land Adam Oates. Oates played 14 regular-season and five playoff games for them (he had two assists in an easy Ottawa Senators' first-round win) before leaving to sign with Anaheim. Doug Gilmour changed teams three times at the deadline — once going to New Jersey, once to Buffalo, once to Toronto — and it never worked out for him in any of his short-term homes. Phil Housley changed teams twice at the deadline — once to New Jersey, once to Toronto — and if anything, those teams went backwards whenever they put Housley in the line-up.

Pittsburgh's acquisition of Ron Francis from Hartford way back in 1991 was a pivotal contributing factor to the Penguins' Stanley Cup title that year, but the results were not nearly as good more than a decade later when he joined the Maple Leafs at the trading deadline. The less said about the Owen Nolan-to-Toronto fiasco, the better.

The heightened interest in the rent-a-player phenomenon can largely be attributed to two factors: That last year, the two Stanley Cup finalists, Carolina and Edmonton, genuinely helped themselves with trading-deadline, or pre-trading deadline deals; and the pressure, under the new collective bargaining agreement, to win a championship in any year that a team has a reasonable chance, because keeping a talented club together for an extended period is virtually impossible under the restrictions imposed by the salary cap.

Poile said as much Thursday: That back in training camp, the Predators felt that they had their first legitimate Stanley Cup contender this season. They've been well-satisfied with their progress (first overall, even before they made the deal), but thought they were lacking in playoff experience (only Jason Arnott had previously won a Stanley Cup, although Paul Kariya went through to the final with the Ducks in 2003). As a result, they thought Forsberg would be the perfect finishing piece of the puzzle, someone who'd led the playoffs twice in scoring and when healthy, was one of the top five players in the game.

The challenge for coach Barry Trotz will be to get Forsberg his necessary minutes, without disrupting the chemistry that they've built thus far in the season — which may not be as easy as it sounds, given that someone is going to get less power-play time etc., now that Forsberg is on board. But most of the players who've played with Forsberg will attest to the fact that he is a good teammate and more concerned with team goals rather than padding his own stats. And the chance to win another championship will certainly heighten his motivation, after a mostly lost, injury-filled regular season.

NO ORDINARY JOE

It's hard to imagine a NHL playoff unfolding without the presence of 37-year-old future Hall Of Famer Joe Sakic - and Sakic took the first step in ensuring that won't happen with a virtuoso five-point performance in Colorado's come-from-behind 7-5 win over Calgary Thursday night.

How impressive was he? Not only did Sakic score twice — the second, into an empty net, made him the 17th player in NHL history to score 600 goals — he also set up three others as Colorado overcame 2-0 and 4-2 deficits to win in Calgary for the first time in more than four seasons.

Colorado became only the second team other than Vancouver in three-and-a-half months to defeat Calgary, in regulation, on home ice, thus denying the Flames even the solace of a point as a result of an overtime or shootout loss. Colorado needed the win badly and thanks to Sakic, managed to keep their faint playoff hopes alive.

The game was the first of five in a row against Northwest Conference opponents. In the sort of scheduling peculiarity we are getting used to seeing, the Flames are playing the Avalanche in three consecutive games — Thursday and Saturday at home, plus next Tuesday in Denver. The Avalanche also gets to add in a short visit to Vancouver to play the Canucks Sunday night.

By the time the dust settles, the Avalanche will have a clearer notion of whether they will make the playoffs again, or miss for the first time since the 1993-94 season when they were the Quebec Nordiques.

Sakic is the only player left standing from that young Nordiques' squad, something he didn't wanted to be reminded of.

"It's been a while since we were back in Quebec," he said. "It's different (being on the outside of the playoff picture), but it's in our own hands. We play a lot of division games and these are the teams we need to catch.

"(Quebec) was a long time ago. I'm not looking that far back. We put ourselves in a bad position. For us to get out, we have to start winning — and winning often.

"Obviously, to climb and chase these teams ahead of us, we need to win all of them."

Avalanche coach Joel Quenneville has known Sakic for a while now — he was an assistant on Marc Crawford's staff when they won the 1996 Stanley Cup, with Sakic leading the way.

Colorado was forced to let Forsberg and Adam Foote go following the lockout, for salary cap reasons, and then bid goodbye to Blake and Alex Tanguay last summer, largely for money, not competitive reasons. Patrick Roy retired and Jose Theodore hasn't exactly been the second coming since he joined the team last year in that controversial trade for David Aebischer.

Sakic, along with Milan Hedjuk, is really the only link left to their glory years.

Quenneville had nothing but praise for Sakic's contributions in this, a rebuilding year for the Avalanche.

"He's been great. His own game has been outstanding all year. His leadership is tremendous. He knows it's challenging right now, where we're at. He's never been in this position, where we've been outside looking in. But our team is concentrating on making the playoffs. Organizationally, it is important to make the playoffs — and Joe represents that tradition; that we have to get there, and that's what it's all about. Joe represents that every day by how he is."

As the Avalanche attempt to rebuild on the fly — they have two quality rookies in the line-up in Paul Stastny and Wojtek Wolski — Quenneville says Sakic's leadership has been impeccable.

"Joe's aware of where the team is at, of where he contributes to the team and what's necessary. Joe's matured along the way. He'll come and visit us sometimes when he knows what's needed and necessary to help the team. You're lucky when you get to coach a guy like Joe.

"He's one of those guys like Stevie Yzerman and what he meant to Detroit, Joe represents everything you'd like to have as a player in an organization. I'm sure Joe will dictate how that plays out, but right now, we're very fortunate to have him."

Quenneville, incidentally, traced the Avalanche's current predicament to a five-game homestand at the start of February, in which they gained only four of a possible 10 points against Nashville, Minnesota, Edmonton, Florida and Atlanta respectively.

At Christmas, the Northwest Division was in virtually a dead heat among all five teams.

"Well, we went 6-2-1 in one stretch and the next thing you knew, we were four points back," said Quenneville. "Everybody went on a run at the same time, which played a part in it. We had two homes, a five-game home stand and gave up a couple of critical goals late against Minnesota and Edmonton in our building. All of a sudden, we were looking at closing the gap to two against Minnesota with a game in hand. It was a four-point swing. The same thing happened against Edmonton the next game. We only came up with four points at home in that stand, which was probably a big part."

"But the teams we're pursuing, the teams we have to catch, we've got several games against them, so we have some control over our destiny - which is good."

By the way, when Sakic appeared in the Avalanche dressing room post-game — after completing a TV interview — his teammates gave him an impromptu standing ovation.

THIS AND THAT: For Thursday's pivotal game against the Flames, Quenneville made Marek Svatos a healthy scratch for the second game in a row. Last year, Svatos tied Sakic for the team lead with 32 goals, despite missing the final 20 games of the season with a shoulder injury. Even with their line-up in a state of flux — even strength, Ben Guite plays with Andrew Brunette on the Sakic line — Quenneville couldn't bring himself to re-insert Svatos in the line-up. Svatos has scored only twice since Dec. 1 and is usually a defensive liability. Without him in the line-up, they shut out Anaheim 2-0 the other night. According to Quenneville, Svatos' inability to find the back of the net was affecting other parts of his game: "Everybody's going to go through stretches where you're not scoring, but you want to be contributing in other ways. That's what we're looking for" 

--- The Dallas Stars put newly acquired Ladislav Nagy on the top line, alongside Mike Modano and Jere Lehtenin when he debuted for his new team Wednesday night in a 3-1 loss to the Detroit Red Wings. Among the eight teams holding down playoff berths in the Western Conference, Dallas is the second-lowest scoring team behind Vancouver. Nagy is a creative playmaker but he's never scored more than 24 goals in a single NHL season — and had just eight when the Phoenix Coyotes traded him for a first-round pick. Part of Nagy's problem is that he just can't stay healthy. Prior to this season, he was limited to 51 and 55 games in his two previous NHL seasons because of a variety of injuries. Believe it or not, in parts of seven NHL seasons, Nagy — a nominal scorer, who wants big bucks in a new contract - has just 102 goals 

---  It will be up to Predators' coach Barry Trotz to determine how best to deploy Forsberg, now that he has him available. Right now, the Predators' No. 1 line consists of Paul Kariya, plus two players who last week established career highs in points (David Legwand, with 48, and Martin Erat, with 50). They've also had credible production out of the second line (Jason Arnott, J.P. Dumont and Steve Sullivan). For that matter, is there a more effective third-line forward than Scott Hartnell, who leads the team with 80 penalty minutes, is a plus-18 and has contributed 19 goals, nine on the power play? Poile hinted that the ultimate goal will be to put together three lines, all capable of producing regular five-on-five scoring

--- It is in the early, early stages, but yet another possible suitor for the Pittsburgh Penguins (or Nashville Predators) may have surfaced this week. According to a report in the Seattle Times, Clay Bennett — owner of the NBA Supersonics, is looking at luring an NHL franchise to Seattle as part of a proposed new arena complex that would house his NBA team. "We are beginning to work on an analysis for the NHL in the market, understanding first and foremost, is the product viable and then at the same time model the NHL in the building relative to revenue sharing, expense sharing with an NBA team," said Bennett. According to the report, the Sonics have hired an independent research firm "to determine if the Puget Sound market could support" an NHL team; and that while Bennett said that he hadn't been in contact with either the Penguins or Predators, he "insinuated" he's had recent talks with the NHL" 

--- Anaheim got a badly needed overtime win over the Phoenix Coyotes Thursday, rallying from two goals down in the third to force extra time. Chris Pronger had a big part in that comeback, with a pair of power-play goals. Still, Anaheim is just 6-11-2 since Dec. 29 and until that scoring outburst against the Coyotes, hadn't had any offence to speak of for a while (they'd been shut out in three of their previous five games). With Forsberg and Nagy off the market, it be interesting to see if GM Brian Burke turns his attention to a veteran scorer, someone like a Gary Roberts out of Florida.

In 2003, prior to Burke joining the team, the Ducks got great mileage out of another 40-something ex-Leaf, Steve Thomas. Roberts would be a nice fit there, provided of course that he'd consider relocating, short-term, to the West Coast. The thinking is that if he goes anywhere (and he has a no-trade clause that would require his consent), Roberts will want to play for either Ottawa or Toronto — and that he'll also ask his new team to add another year to his contract, which is set to expire in July. Roberts wants to win another Stanley Cup, if possible, before his career ends and isn't ready to retire yet either. Two other possibilities: St. Louis's Keith Tkachuk and Columbus's Frederik Modin 

--- Hart Trophy candidates abound this season, from goaltenders such as Martin Brodeur and Roberto Luongo, to young stars such as Sidney Crosby. If Atlanta Thrashers head coach Bob Hartley had a vote, he'd give it to Marian Hossa. Hossa, according to Hartley, "is for me, the most complete hockey player in this league right now. Looking at the way he plays defence, offence, the little details of the game, for a player with so much skill, very rarely are you going to see a guy back-checking the way he does. I'm not jus talking about his effort, I'm talking about his positioning, his understanding of the game. That's something you can't teach. Not only does he have that ability, he has the commitment to do it on a regular basis."

Hossa's chances of getting named on a few ballots (voters are asked to list five candidates) will be greatly enhanced if Atlanta manages to hold on to a playoff spot in the tight Eastern Conference, where five points separate the third from the 10th-placed teams as of Friday.