page_title: Mats Sundin
section_title: Toronto Maple Leafs
hierarchical_section_title: Mats Sundin / Playing career / Toronto Maple Leafs
caption_attribution_description: English: Mats Sundin warming up in a January 10, 2008 game vs the Kings
context_page_description: Mats Johan Sundin is a Swedish former professional ice hockey player who played the majority of his career in the National Hockey League, retiring in 2009. Originally drafted first overall in 1989, Sundin played his first four seasons in the NHL with the Quebec Nordiques. He was then traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1994, where he played the majority of his career, serving 11 seasons as team captain. At the end of the 2007–08 season, Sundin was the longest serving non-North American born captain in NHL history. Sundin last played for the Vancouver Canucks in the 2008–09 season before announcing his retirement on 30 September 2009. He appeared in the Stanley Cup playoffs in 10 of his 18 seasons.
  Excluding his rookie season, the shortened lockout season and his half season with Vancouver, Sundin scored at least 70 points in every season of his career, played at least 70 games in every season and led the Maple Leafs in points in every year he was with the team save for 2002–03, when Alexander Mogilny beat him by seven points. On 14 October 2006, Sundin became the first Swedish player to score 500 goals. He is the Maple Leafs' franchise all-time leader in goals and points.
context_section_description: The Maple Leafs acquired Sundin in a trade on 28 June 1994. The Nordiques sent Sundin, Garth Butcher, Todd Warriner and a 1994 first-round draft pick (acquired through the 1992 Eric Lindros deal, traded to the Washington Capitals, used to pick Nolan Baumgartner) to Toronto in exchange for Wendel Clark, Sylvain Lefebvre, Landon Wilson and a 1994 first-round draft pick (used to pick Jeff Kealty). However, as a result of the 1994–95 lockout, Sundin's Toronto debut was delayed and he returned to Sweden to play again for Djurgårdens IF. When NHL play resumed later that season, Sundin made an immediate impact, leading the Leafs in scoring at a point-per-game pace with 47 points. 
  In his third season with the Maple Leafs, Sundin recorded a 41-goal, 94-point season, the second-highest of his career and the most prolific during his tenure in Toronto.  With the departure of team captain Doug Gilmour to the New Jersey Devils during the 1996–97 season, Sundin was named Gilmour's successor, becoming the 16th Maple Leafs captain and first European captain in team history.
  After an 83-point campaign in 1998–99, Sundin led the Maple Leafs into the 1999 Stanley Cup playoffs as the fourth seed in Eastern Conference. Bolstered by the acquisitions of forward Steve Thomas and goaltender Curtis Joseph in the previous off-season, the Leafs made it to the Conference Finals against the seventh-seeded Buffalo Sabres, but were defeated in five games. Sundin finished with a career-playoff-high 16 points in 17 playoff contests. Sundin made another appearance in the Eastern Conference Finals with the Maple Leafs again in 2001–02, but lost to the Carolina Hurricanes in six games.
  In 2002–03, after eight consecutive years as the Maple Leafs' leading scorer in the regular season, Sundin was succeeded by Alexander Mogilny, who topped Sundin's 72 points with 79.  The following season, Mogilny suffered a serious hip injury that required him to miss 12 weeks, allowing Sundin to reclaim his spot as top scorer for the Maple Leafs that season.
  During the 2003–04 campaign, however, Sundin was the subject of League controversy with his infamous stick-throwing incident on 8 January 2004, against the Nashville Predators. Breaking his stick on an attempted shot, Sundin threw it aside in disgust. Instead of hitting the glass, the stick inadvertently entered the crowd. Deemed a reckless act by the NHL, Sundin was subsequently assigned a one-game suspension.  After the game, as an apology, he gave a brand new autographed stick to the fan that had caught the broken stick.
  As a result of the ensuing 2004–05 NHL lockout, Sundin spent the next season inactive, opting not to play in Sweden like many of his countrymen. When NHL play resumed for 2005–06, Sundin was sidelined in the first game of the season when he was struck in the face with a puck, narrowly missing his eye, but breaking his orbital bone. He returned to the lineup after a month to lead the team in scoring with 78 points. However, Toronto did not meet the same success and missed the playoffs for the first time in seven years in 2006. It would also mark the first of Sundin's last three years with the Leafs without a post-season appearance.
  Near the beginning of the 2006–07 season, Sundin became just the 35th player in NHL history to reach the 500-goal mark. He achieved the milestone on 14 October 2006, with a hat-trick effort against Miikka Kiprusoff of the Calgary Flames. He scored the 500th goal with his third mark of the game, shorthanded, over Kiprusoff's blocker in overtime to defeat the Flames 5–4. Later in the season, on 20 March 2007, Sundin reached 900 points as a Maple Leaf with a two-assist effort in a 2–1 win against the New Jersey Devils.
  The following season, in 2007–08, Sundin began approaching several team records as a Maple Leaf.  In the second game of the season, on 4 October 2007, against the Ottawa Senators, Sundin scored his 389th goal with the club, tying Darryl Sittler's team record. In Toronto's fifth game of the season, on 11 October versus the New York Islanders, Sundin scored his 917
caption: Sundin with the Maple Leafs during the 2007–08 season, his last with the team.
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