Ok, ask anyone who knows me or anyone who listens to the Hockeybuzzcast knows I am a fan of Mats Sundin. I NEVER once said Mats should be expected to waive his No Trade. Never once. Why not? Simple. Because I felt that Mats was owed that freedom of choice for YEARS upon YEARS of his service to the Blue and White. I know for fact Mats could have screwed Toronto and left for more money elsewhere time and time again...And he didn't. And what's more he never used the term Hometown discount. To him Hometown was worth everything.
Would it have been nice for Leafs fans to see a good player back for him at the deadline? Sure. Yet think about it. Really think about it. For that one marginal player or iffy draft pick that you would have received?
You Leaf fans owed it to Mats to respect that decision. I am sorry to be so direct, but I really feel you did. This isn't fantasy hockey. This is the real life story of a man who fought wars for you.
And then, what a story last season became..(although many Leaf fans were too pissed to see it) as Mats, after refusing to be traded and gallantly stating that he didn't even WANT to win a Cup if he wasn't in Blue and White....Well Mats put on what may have been his most outstanding performance yet and damn near willed the Leafs into the playoffs. He did so against all odds and with the heart of a player from another time . A time when you played with a team and you retired with that team.
And as that race against time and pretty much reason transpired last year, people like me, people who haven't willingly chose to watch Toronto in years, looked for the Leaf games on the Center Ice package. We watched to catch a passing glance at the Hollywood-like story of a man who bleeds blue trying and actually doing something magical. And doing it not for the money, but for the love of a city and a sport.
And although he fell short, as many Leaf fans told you he was destined to fall short, deep down even the most cynical watched Mats score those goals with the goalie pulled and goals in the shootouts...And all of you Leaf fans, every last one of you MUST admit that there were a few brief moments when the thought crossed your mind, "Wow. What if he gets us in? What if we can play Montreal and win? What if the East is there to be had? What if this is a Hollywood story?"
What if?
Now I am quite certain that the most pragmatic of you will comment in this blog that you knew they couldn't do it. There was just no way. It would have been better to fail more and get a top five pick...But wait a sec, you got the top five pick anyway, so really what are you doing anyway? What are you routing for and what are you routing against?
Sports are games and games are about "believing you can and playing until you can't." That's why the term "mathematically eliminated" cuts us all to the core, because until the clock ticks down you are playing. And as long as your playing you are LIVING!
So are you mad at Mats Sundin for last season?
There was one moment that to me showed why Mats NOT waiving his no trade clause was infinitely more positive towards the future of the Toronto Maple Leafs than the alternative. It came in one of the final games. When hope was fighting against hope and both looked like they were going down hard. I was watching "Hockey Night in Canada" and those CBC guys should have won an award for capturing this moment.
Believe it or not it all took place at the end of a TV time-out with the play still stopped.
To be honest I can't even tell you who the Leafs player was, because he was up from the Marlies. He looked like he was all of 16 years old. He was standing on the ice and leaning up against the top of the boards on the bench. His one arm was resting on the boards and Mats was talking to him like the confident father that it looked like Mats could have been to the kid.
Mats was explaining something holding his stick in one hand using it as a pointer. Now whoever this kid was, and it really doesn't matter.
This kid will likely never play another game with Sundin and that doesn't matter.
I don't know if that thought was in this kid's head or what, but this kid was watching Mats describe whatever it was Mats was explaining like Mats was an absolute God. The kid was spellbound by being around a legend and in awe of the fact that "Here I am...now wearing the same jersey as the legendary Mats Sundin and he is teaching me something."
And this was just a five second moment.
How many other moments like this were there with how many other players looked up to Mats on theat Roster?
So are you Mad at Mats?
Can you even try to make the argument that some second line player or conditional draft pick could have had that kind of impact on the kids on that team?
I firmly believe that Mats helped the Leafs by staying last year.
Now let's go to this year.
This year is a different story to me.
Now Mats is an Unrestricted Free Agent.
This isn't a trade that happened suddenly or a last chance to win a Cup in Toronto. Not at all.
Mats knew this day was coming. Mats knows all the cities in the NHL. Mats knows players on every team. Mats knows all the coaches. Mats knows all the great places he could live. Mats knows he has the second biggest agency behind him. Mats knows in J.P. Barry he has a class individual who has earned the respect of GMs through years of scrupulous negotiations.
And most of Mats knew that he was going to get great offers and great deals from teams that have a limited amount of funds and an even more limited amount of options and time.
In my opinion Mats screwed up BIG TIME this past two weeks.
Knowing all of the above and having all the time he had to think about the factors...Mats should have known whether or not he was going to play hockey this year by the time his rights were dealt to Montreal on that Friday night in Ottawa.
I am not in favor of what Niedermayer did last year, but the Ducks owned Scott's rights, so while you can question what Scott did, it really was only affecting one team...
Although I am 100000% sure Mats would never hurt a fly and never meant or wanted to hurt anyone...Mats screwed and Mats hurt everyone.
Mats hurt the Canadiens badly. He NEVER should have allowed talks with the Canadiens to start in he wasn't sure he could say yes. It is the equivalent of a girl picking out an engagement ring and going to dinner unsure of her answer. We will never know what the Canadiens could have gotten and we don't know what they still can get (Demitra I am hearing), but we do know that Montreal was distracted by Mats.
Mats hurt the Canucks badly. When a team puts that much on the line for you, I feel they deserve a yes or a no. That simple.
Mats hurt other teams that put offers together.
Mats hurt his agent badly. I can only imagine how hard it must have been for J.P. to call these teams today after the teams had seen all these other players signing guys that they couldn't get in on. Today's statement from Mats, sounded to me like a public apology for his client's indecisiveness. I don't know it to be the case, but I would bet that J.P. went to Mats and said something like, "We need to let these teams go and you need to NOT put me in this position." He is a great agent, so I know he will deny that as he should to protect Mats as he should... But I will not be convinced.
Mats hurt other players who were trying to sign deals badly. One agent said to me that today was "Hurry up and wait." Mats was a big domino and it blocked a lot of smaller dominoes. Basically as one player said to me, "If a team that has interest in Mats has interest in me...I am screwed, because I will wait."
And worse of all, in my opinion Mats not knowing in time hurt Mats...
I truly have no intention to be disrespectful to this great man.
My problem is all in the way this went down and when it went down.
All Mats had to do was say to the teams involved, "Let's talk in August." Then all would have been fine. But instead, he had his agent go and field offers and gave the teams serious hope in landing the #1 UFA. Mats even went to the NY Rangers and solicited them.
Then after these teams spent many hours and energy getting the needed organizational approvals to make a deal of this size, they got locked out of other big names. Mats announces he doesn't know if he wants to return or not.
Do you think this is ethical? Are you allowed your own free will if it negatively affects others?
What if the Rangers had put an offer in after Mats solicited them?
Would it then be OK for Mats to say "sorry but I am not sure I want to play?"
In the end
In the end, if Mats wants to play again he will be Leaf. He essentially secured that fate today by saying he was waiting.
Quite simply players are competitors and when it comes to stopping that competitiveness...You either retire or you aren't ready to retire.
Mats isn't ready. Scott isn't ready. Teemu isn't ready. And none of them should be.
There will come a time when Mats decides he is ready to play again and the only team willing to dish out any money will be the team that will have tons of cap space because they are rebuilding. The Toronto Maple Leafs.
Mats will sign with the leafs and the cynical will blame Mats for the Leafs not failing enough to get Tavares, when truth be told the Leafs are a good bet to NOT fail enough without Mats.
And I do believe what Mats can teach the young players on the Leafs will be invaluable towards the Leafs lifting that silver trophy..
Or then there is this scenario. A scenario I believe Leaf fans would love and it involves Mats as a Leaf....MATS TAKES THE YEAR OFF.
Then the Leafs can suck enough to get Tavares and THEN come back in 09-10 with all these great young kids AND Mats Sundin.
How many of you like that scenario?
Maybe I should ask you AFTER watching your team lose all year. I know the passion of Leaf fans and I think re-building and losing sounds good in theory, but only for one season tops.
I will be back with more rumours tonight, but I wanted to get this off my chest after a long day of talking to people that Mats affected...And I wanted to know what you think?
Are you MAD AT MATS?
RUMOURS
Vermette to tampa (e3)
Huselius to CBJ (e3)
Boyle definitely appears to be on the block...
Zherdev and Fritshe to Rangers, for Backman and Tuytin.
Orpik re-signs in Pitts 6 for 22
I am talking to three teams and I believe that this Blue Jackets, Rangers deal is a pre-cursor to something else involving the Jackets and the Rangers dealing with other teams...
update:
Senators are closing in on a rumoured deal to acquire Boyle from Tampa
Canadiens talking to Demitra (e3), Jason Williams e2,
and The NJ Devils are also talking to Fedorov
and The Canucks and Flames are looking at Antti Mietinen.
follow me on twitter: www.twitter.com/eklund...
MORE TO COME...so many good players still to be signed!
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