There will be some criticism in Toronto (there is always criticism in and of Toronto), but you won't hear it from Joe Sakic or Jeremy Roenick.
There won't be a harsh word from Jason Smith or Markus Naslund either.
Those men who this off-season said goodbye to hockey and to life as they knew it know there is no right way to say goodbye to something you love. They know there's no right time to make the decision nor is there a game plan for even figuring out how to go about it.
So if Mats Sundin stayed a year too long, well, who among us can really say it was for no other reason than the decision was a difficult one?
Do you think Sakic didn't struggle with the when, where, how and why? Do you believe for a moment that Roenick's tears weren't real, and that his emotions weren't raw?
Can you ever really say Theo Fleury is "certain" that the end is truly at hand and that he is "at peace" with what time, his life decisions and the ever-changing pace of the game have taken from him?
Of course not.
So I for one can't blame Sundin if he lingered a tad too long and as a Vancouver Canuck before saying goodbye to hockey.
I'm not bothered either by the fact that he made the announcement in his native Sweden and that he did it in his native tongue.
Sweden is, after all, the land of his birth and the centre of his life and though those who paint their faces blue and white might be loathe admitting it, Sweden is the biggest part of who he is and the foundation for all that he's accomplished in hockey.
That's not to take away from the National Hockey League years and especially the 13 seasons spent wearing a Maple Leaf on his chest. Even without a Stanley Cup, something Sundin finally admitted "would have been nice," those were mostly good, sometimes great seasons.
But to define the man as simply a good captain and a great player for the Maple Leafs is missing such a big part of the whole.
In saying Toronto "is and will always be my second home," Sundin reaffirmed what he always knew in his heart. He was a Swedish hockey great first, an NHLer second.
His list of accomplishments makes that perfectly clear.
Sundin was an eight-time NHL All-Star, but he's more proud of the fact that he ends his career first among Swedish-born players with 564 goals, 785 assists and 1,349 NHL points.
He doesn't refer to himself as the first European drafted No. 1 overall, but the first Swedish player so honored.
And why not?
With Sweden, Sundin won three International Ice Hockey Federation World Championships and an Olympic gold medal. In best-on-best play, that's an exceptional accomplishment.
He's proud of those accomplishments, proud as any player could and should be and though he never added a Stanley Cup to that personal trophy case, his NHL career is hardly a disappointment either.
The goals, assists and points are Hall of Fame level numbers and there were some very good years in Toronto, years in which he truly was the leader of teams that had very good playoff runs and with a break or two or an upgrade or three or simply better management and ownership, might well have produced the Cup that Torontonians so desperately covet.
It's not as if he didn't give his best.
He'll be reminded that he never won it all for his "second home" just like he's already being reminded that it would have been better had he not gone to Vancouver but that's truly a Toronto centre of the universe point of view.
Is Wendel Clark any less a Leaf for the time spent playing for the Nordiques or scraping the ice in a New York Islanders uniform?
Is Doug Gilmour tainted by his time spent as a Sabre, a Blackhawk, Canadien, Flame or even a member of the St. Louis Blues?
Borje Salming, Darryl Sittler, Rick Viave -- the list is too long, too real and too painful for Toronto fans to recount in full, but already the Leafs all-time points leader, and certainly its most gracious captain, is being told he made a mistake by leaving Leafland for a final half season as a Canuck.
Maybe in their eyes, but I suspect Sundin sees more of a world view and that both his life and his career will be largely unsullied by the fact he happened to play in Quebec and Vancouver as well as in Sweden, a country where he is revered as a hero and its gift to the hockey world.
There will never be a moment of second guessing by the people there.
It will be that way in Toronto someday. His legacy is too good not to be remembered fondly.
His sin here (and it's debatable if there ever really was one) was that he was never everything Leafs fans and Leafs media expected or in some cases needed him to be. He captained the best way he knew how and that was pretty good, but it wasn't, in the eyes of some, as good as Clark or Gilmour even though they never won Cups here either. As a player he was remarkably consistent both in the regular season and the playoffs but that wasn't good enough for some who actually believed the Leafs could go farther with an unleashed Tie Domi than a reserved and dignified Mats Sundin.
Sundin also gets criticism for living within the rules of his contract. He didn't give up a no-trade, no-movement clause for the betterment of the Leafs and some people can neither forgive nor forget that. Funny how a guy who played it to the letter of the law is vilified and the people who could never surround him with the proper talent to win it all generally get everything from a gentle rebuke to a get-out-of-jail free card, a legacy that only Toronto seems willing to provide.
For me, Mats Sundin will be remembered not for what people wanted him to be, but for what he always was; a consistently good player who always played to the best of his ability and was extremely loyal to his teammates, proud of the uniform he wore and gracious to both his many fans and even his many detractors.
He was a gifted player, one who combined size and talent with class and a sense of dignity that few players could ever match and if he made a few mistakes along the way so be it.
Being perfect is impossible. Being the best you can be every game and every day is every bit as difficult.
If Mats Sundin lingered a tad too long, so be it. If he chose not to make Toronto his first home or his last stop, well I'm fine with that too.
If he made his final decision in his homeland and announced it in the language he was born to, well, what honest person among us wouldn't want to do the same?
Mats Sundin was never perfect, but his abiding legacy will be that of a very good man who gave his best wherever he was and for every team he played for. Like so many before him, the end came hard, it was a time filled with uncertainty, indecision and maybe even a touch of disbelief.
That's what hockey players do; it's what human beings do.
You simply can't fault a man for that.
