Toronto Maple Leafs

The Case for Keeping Sundin

Everyone is touting the case for trading Mats Sundin and there is certainly a case to be made. But before we automatically decide that he must be traded, lets consider the benefits of keeping a guy like Mats Sundin around and signing him to a 2 year contract extension.

1. He and Antropov play great hockey together. He makes Antropov a better player as well as whoever else gets put on that line. The 1-2 combo of Sundin and Antropov have combined for 95 points in the first 50 games which is better than the top 1-2 combo’s of Boston, Buffalo, Carolina, Florida, Montreal, New Jersey, NY Islanders and NY Rangers among eastern conference teams.

2. Recently that has been Steen and Steen has rewarded the Leafs with 5 points (3g, 2a) in the past 4 games. Over the past 2 years Sundin has helped develop Antropov into a very good hockey player and if he can do the same for Steen over the next two seasons it would be well worth keeping Sundin for that alone.

3. There are no players on this current roster ready to step up and provide leadership for the future. Having a player such as Sundin in the lineup will take a lot of pressure off the new younger players that the Leafs need to bring in. I believe one of the reasons Detroit has been so good for so long and why they have been able to develop late round draft picks is because they don’t rush young players into a losing lineup without any leadership. Under the media scrutiny in Toronto you can kill a young player in that sort of atmosphere. Having Sundin around takes a lot of pressure off of everyone.

4. The Leafs, if they are able to unload some salary cap space either through trade, buyouts, or sending some big ticket players to the AHL they will want to spend that money brining in free agents. Getting a free agent to joing the Leafs is going to be a much easier sell with a well respected and still a highly talented Mats Sundin on the team than without him.

5. If you take Mats Sundin off the trade deadline trade market there may be no elite players available come trade deadline and that may open up the trade market for second tier Leaf players like Tucker, Kubina, McCabe, Blake, etc. and those are the guys you really want to get rid of to free up salary cap space.

6. Sundin at $5.5 million/year is one of the best bargains in the league.

7. What’s the rush. He is still a top 20 forward in the league on pace to score close to 35 goals and 90 points. He is 36 but he has been remarkably healthy throughout his career and players like that age remarkably well. If you traded Mats Sundin right now he might be the best rent-a-player there has ever been but are you really going to be able to flip that into more than what teams got for rent-a-players in recent years, a prospect, a late first round pick and a second or third round pick? I doubt it. The reality is you could probably keep Sundin for another 2 years and still be able to trade him for a prospect and a first round pick 2 years from now. What is the rush.