Mats Sundin |
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Mats Johan Sundin (born February 13, 1971) is a retired Swedish professional ice hockey player. Sundin annouced his retirement the morning of Sep, 30, 2009 in Stockholm, Sweden. Sundin has last played for the Vancouver Canucks in the 2008–09 season. He has played most of his career up to this point with the Toronto Maple Leafs where, at the end of the 2007–08 NHL season, he had been the second-longest active serving captain in the NHL, behind Joe Sakic of the Colorado Avalanche, and the longest serving non-North American born captain in NHL history. Sundin began his career with the Quebec Nordiques and was traded to the Leafs in 1994.
Excluding his first season, the shortened lockout season and his half season with the Vancouver Canucks, Sundin has scored at least 70 points every year. He has played at least 70 games in every full length NHL season of his career, and has led the Leafs in points in every year he has been with the team except 2002–03, when Alexander Mogilny beat him by seven points. On October 14, 2006, Sundin became the first Swedish player to score 500 goals. He is the Leafs' franchise all-time leader in goals (420) and points (984). He is currently tied with Jaromir Jagr, Sergei Fedorov and Patrik Elias for the NHL record for regular season overtime goals (15).
Sundin was drafted by the Quebec Nordiques with the first overall pick in the 1989 NHL Entry Draft, becoming the first European-born player drafted first overall in NHL history. At the time, Sundin was playing in the Swedish second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan for Nacka HK. He played the following season in the Elitserien for Djurgårdens IF, helping the club to the Le Mat Trophy as league champions.