If there's anything certain of Toronto's 2008-09 season it's that Mats Sundin will not be a part of it.
What they are is a team seemingly destined to miss the playoffs for a franchise record fourth consecutive year.
That’s not news. Fact is, it’s to be expected and taking the pulse of the greater Toronto marketplace in recent days, many fans of the franchise seem willing to accept that knowing that the pain of losing is what created opportunities now being enjoyed by once lowly franchises such as the Red Wings, Pittsburgh Penguins, Ottawa Senators and a slew of others.
But there is still one major issue that needs to be addressed before the Leafs face their 82-game march to oblivion and it’s the absence of Mats Sundin.
It’s pretty clear now that Sundin has quit on the Leafs.
He hasn’t said that and likely never will. It’s also true that that tag will seem a bit harsh given that Sundin hasn’t opted to play for any NHL team this season and there’s reason to suspect that he might not play at all.
If that’s the case, good bye and good luck Mats. You’ve had a better than decent career, you’ve given nothing but your best throughout your career and it’s fair to say that the best of your best was for the Leafs.
But the quit tag will not go away.
You see Mats Sundin hasn’t retired. He didn’t make that last wave at centre ice, state that he was the luckiest man alive (or words to that effect) and take that long last lap around the Air Canada Centre ice.
Instead he simply walked away from his team.
Now choosing not to play is Sundin’s right, same as it is his right should he choose to come back to another team at a later date.
**Breaking News: According to the Ottawa Sun: Senators owner Eugene Melnyk has told Mats Sundin he wants him on his team.**
But it’s all but in writing that he’s not coming back to the Leafs and that he wouldn’t be welcome if he wanted too.
No one will say that on the record, but it’s hard to imagine that that isn’t the feeling down at One Maple Leaf Plaza.
It came upon the franchise the night Sundin exercised another of his rights, the right not to waive his no-movement clause so that he might be traded for draft picks, prospects or players.
He was within his rights to do that and this column has not only supported that right, but defended Sundin for exercising it.
But with actions come reactions and on that trade-deadline day when Leafs general manager Cliff Fletcher asked Sundin to waive his contractual agreement and he refused, that was the end. The message that Fletcher and the managerial suits at Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment took from that decision was that Sundin no longer cared about the Leafs as a team and cared only about himself.
Again, that was his right and he not only negotiated it, he earned it.
But the moment he exercised it he cut his ties with the franchise and all parties knew it.
You can forget about that "open arms" statement Fletcher gave when asked recently if Sundin had a change of heart he could always come back to the blue and white. I never say never, not in this business, and especially not when writing about a franchise that regularly makes bizarre and illogical decisions, but I will say that if it did happen it would be one of the strangest Leafs moves in their long history of strange business decisions. I would also say that despite statements to the contrary, he won’t be warmly welcomed.
Too much has simply gone by the boards for that to happen.
You see Sundin’s presence was as much a part of the perceived locker room problem as all the other players that Fletcher moved out this past off-season. The GM was totally honest this week when he said "we had to change the complexity of the locker room.
"I'm not saying Darcy Tucker is a bad hockey player or a bad person. I'm not saying Bryan McCabe was a problem or the same thing about (Kyle)Wellwood," Fletcher said. "I'm just saying the combination of what was going on in that room, whatever dynamics, wasn't working.
"We couldn't just make one change or two changes," Fletcher continued. "We needed to make dramatic changes. Something had to be done to change the culture of this hockey club. If you're losing too many years in a row, you have to change the culture. I felt this team accepted defeat far too easily. I thought they were satisfied much too easily. I didn't think we competed at the level you have to compete to be successful in the National Hockey League.
Sundin was a part of that dynamic and Fletcher knew it the moment Sundin refused to be moved.
Now that didn’t qualify him for the treatment Tucker or Wellwood or some of the others got. Sundin after all arrived in Toronto via a trade Fletcher made 14 years ago and he wasn’t about to ruin the legacy of that. It’s also fair to say Sundin, even in light of his final decisions, didn’t deserve anything but the franchise’s—and by extension—the fans respect for his years of exemplary performance.
Fletcher did that very well and by leaving the door slightly ajar, he also cleverly puts the pressure on Sundin as the player who chose to leave–especially if he does choose to come back wearing a different sweater.
But make no mistake, Sundin can’t truly be welcomed back, not after he walked away knowing he was leaving the Leafs with nothing in return, not after Fletcher and company made the decision to break up a team that had accomplished nothing and seemed proud of it.
Fletcher has left the door open for Sundin to come back as an non player, a legacy player, and you could argue that it is open in such a way that he will always be able to walk the streets of Toronto with the likes of Doug Gilmour and Darryl Sittler and Wendel Clark and the many Leafs who will always have a place in the collective hearts of Leafs fans.
He will surely someday be honoured the way those and others were, with a banner in the rafters, a legacy player, one of the greatest of the greats.
But behind closed doors, Sundin will also be remembered as a Leaf who could have done more for the club and for himself in the pursuit of a Stanley Cup and in choosing not to, he turned his back on helping the franchise one last time.
The Leafs team that steps onto the ice tonight is weaker because of that decision. The climb from the bottom will take longer because Sundin chose to walk away leaving nothing in his place.
It will be difficult if not impossible for the current management to respect him for that. The painful rebuilding project that gets underway tonight could have been farther along had he not made the decision to quit.
These Leafs, both the players and the organization turn the page tonight. The one thing they both can be certain of is that Mats Sundin is no longer a part of anything except their past.
That’s because Sundin chose not to leave anything for their future.
