Leafs give Sundin a spot on Legends Row
Former captain will have statue unveiled along with that of idol Borje Salming
Mats Sundin once said he would never trade his 13 seasons as a Maple Leaf for a Stanley Cup ring. It was that commitment to the blue and white — a weave of dedication and consistency — that made him one of the most beloved Leafs captains, and something the Leafs have immortalized on the team’s Legends Row.
The popular Swede’s inclusion to the Row was announced Thursday evening when the Leafs opened their Fan Fest at the Air Canada Centre. Fans were expecting the addition of one player — Borje Salming — to the row, but a crowd of about 2,500 was taken by surprise when Leafs president Brendan Shanahan called out Sundin’s name. Sundin was equally surprised when he was informed.
“I was shocked, you don’t expect to be part of Legends Row and the names they have up there (so soon),” Sundin told the Fan Fest audience. “At my age now (44), I thought I’d get there down the road, so it’s great to be there now.
“As a player you never have the time to take it all in . . . Now (I) have the time and I have a 3-year-old daughter with me, and a 10-month-old son, and I hope they bring their children back here one day and look at (the statue) too.”
Sundin was especially proud to join Salming; he said Salming and Mats Naslund were players he idolized growing up.
Syl Apps and George Armstrong were previously announced as 2015 Legends Row inductees and their statues will be unveiled in November during the Hockey Hall of Fame induction weekend.
“It’s kinda tough to describe what this means to me and my fanily . . . those are great names there, it’s a real honour,” Sundin said.
Shanahan broke the Legends Row news to Sundin earlier in the summer, and the Big Swede’s reaction included disbelief and even an expletive.
“Mats and I bump into one another once in a while,” Shanahan said. “We never played on the same team together, but we have a relationship. We met (at a downtown Toronto hotel) and he was pleased it happend so soon (after his playing career), and the fact he went in with Borje Salming.”
Both Sundin and Salming had their likeness reproduced in bronze by Rockford, Ill., sculptor Erik Blome. The Leafs will hold an unveiling ceremony with both players on hand Saturday morning.
The bronze immortalization marks perhaps the final Leafs tribute to Sundin, though he still maintains a home in Toronto and is a frequent visitor to the hockey city he called his second home.
Sundin joked with reporters after addressing the Fan Fest crowd, saying he hoped his statue would have him wearing a CCM helmet and not the Jofa helmet he wore at the outset of his career.
Over his 13 seasons as a Leaf — 11 of them as captain — he guided Toronto to six straight post-seasons between 1998 and 2004, before winding up the Toronto era of his Hall of Fame career in 2008 as the club’s all-time leading scorer.
Sundin scored at least 70 points in each of his 13 Leafs seasons, save for the lockout shortened 1994-95 season. He led the team in scoring every year in Toronto except for 2002-03, when Alex Mogilny topped him by seven points.
He left the Leafs as a free agent and retired after a season and a half with Vancouver, finishing with 1,349 points over 1,346 career games in the NHL.
He was also the first Swedish player to score 500 NHL goals.
Sundin has been watching the summer of change in Toronto, and likes what he sees.
“I think Brendan Shanahan and his team are doing the right thing, building the organization from the ground up,” Sundin said.
“Leafs fans will have their Stanley Cup.”