A disappointing end to Filip Forsberg’s hockey season was followed by one heck of an opportunistic milestone in his personal life.
Forsberg, 30, and the Nashville Predators lost in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs this spring, crashing out in six games against the Vancouver Canucks on May 3. Nine days later, Forsberg’s wife, Erin Alvey, gave birth their first baby, son Felix.
With his hockey schedule suddenly freed up, it allowed Forsberg — who stars on Prime Video’s new reality series Faceoff: Inside the NHL with his wife (and Felix!) — to spend all summer with the newest addition to his family.
“The first month and a half, it was just recovery mode for me,” Forsberg exclusively told Us Weekly. “I didn’t have to go to the rink, go to practice. I didn’t have to do anything. It was literally just spending time with him and Erin.”
Forsberg continued, “Especially people in my profession, it’s very rare you get that type of time early on in life. One of my teammates just had a baby two days before training camp started. That’s on the other end, you know?”
Thanks to the happenstance, Forsberg was able to play much of an active role in Felix’s first few months.
“If we would have moved on from the first round, it could have been a mid-playoff baby,” he said. “It would have been very different. It’s not like I had to sleep in another room because he wakes up. I could just be up there.”
With the 2024-25 season right around the corner — the Predators open the regular season October 10 against the Dallas Stars — Alvey knows things are about change.
“It’s a lot on a mom’s shoulders,” Alvey admitted. “But I feel so lucky. I’m not doing it alone. We have some help. She comes a couple hours in the mornings sometimes, which is nice. If I need her, she comes. We can’t complain. He’s a really good baby.”
Alvey has also been able to lean on the “amazing” support of the other Predators’ wives and girlfriends.
“They’re the sweetest girls,” she gushed. “I think it’s the same across the league. You become a family. It’s a small world. You all have one thing in common: your partner is gone at the same time. We really need to depend on each other. We do, particularly here in Nashville. It’s a very kind group. There’s young, there’s older, it’s just a really cool mix.”
Alvey added, “I can’t say enough good things about the girls here.”
As for baby Felix, viewers of Faceoff: Inside the NHL, which premiered Friday, October 4, will get an inside look at the excitement and chaos of his earliest moments — even if that wasn’t exactly the plan for the Forsbergs, who were first approached about the series before they even knew they were expecting.
“I don’t know if it’s any girl’s dream to be nine months pregnant while filming a TV show,” Alvey joked. “But it was cool. I had to let go of my ego and vanity a little bit. I got the best gift I could have ever gotten, so if those extra 45 pounds are on there, it is what it is.”
All six episodes of Faceoff: Inside the NHL are streaming now on Prime Video.
