Матс Сундин Торонто Мэйпл Лифс багийн удирдлагад эргэн ирж ажлаа эхлүүллээ

TORONTO — Mats Sundin was about an hour removed from dropping his sons off at their new school, in their new country, when he was asked why he decided to leave the quiet life in Sweden behind to jump back into the fishbowl with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

“It was actually perfect timing for me,” Sundin said in a recent interview. “I don’t know if I would have been able to do this like 10 years ago or so. The whole family’s super excited. Our kids are excited.”

While the city is a place of comfort for the 55-year-old Maple Leafs icon, the decision to return as a senior executive adviser back in May was not one to be taken lightly because it required a full-time commitment.

Sundin and his wife Josephine were strongly rooted in their homeland, having welcomed children Bonnie, Nathanael and Julian well after his Hall-of-Fame playing career ended in 2009.

But no amount of distance and time can seemingly dim Sundin’s love for the Maple Leafs, the same way the club’s late-career request to waive his no-movement clause didn’t ultimately sour his feelings for the organization. And so when the call came from Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment CEO Keith Pelley, he couldn’t resist the allure of a return to Toronto.

“I always considered it my home,” said Sundin. “So, when we started talking about this in the spring, I talked to my wife and family, and for us it was a great opportunity to come back and spend time in Toronto and Canada and to represent the Toronto Maple Leafs again. It’s an institution. It’s the biggest and best fan base in the world in terms of hockey.

“To be able to get back and do this with (general manager) John (Chayka) was just a great opportunity.”

For Leafs fans of a certain vintage, it may be jarring to see Sundin re-enter the picture in such a significant way. He’d kept a reasonably low profile in retirement, popping up for occasional appearances such as the night the team honored Börje Salming at Scotiabank Arena shortly before his death in 2022 or when the Leafs visited Stockholm for Global Series games in November 2023, but otherwise Sundin kept busy focusing on his family life in Sweden.

Now he’s not only back in Toronto, he’s back on the grind, working hand-in-hand with Chayka atop the club’s hockey operations department.

Sundin spent 13 years playing for the Leafs — 11 of them wearing the captain’s “C” — and believes he can channel that experience into helping the current players navigate day-to-day life under the bright spotlight.

“In a market like Toronto, I think it is different than being in Carolina and Florida and all that,” said Sundin. “Here’s a different thing. When we have success, it becomes a hockey club again. I’m looking forward to working on that and helping the players to be able to deal with all of the other commotion that goes on being with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

“It’s a long regular season, it’s hopefully a long playoffs and then you want it to be as normal as possible being a Toronto Maple Leaf. Just like whether you played for the Panthers or somewhere else.”

He arrives at a time that is anything but normal in the team’s arc. The Leafs plummeted to 28th overall last season after qualifying for the playoffs in nine consecutive years, leading to a sweeping set of changes over the summer that make their prospects for the upcoming campaign difficult to project.

In Sundin’s playing days, his actions always spoke louder than his words. He set the tone in the gym with a punishing set of circuits that his teammates labeled the “captain’s workouts,” and he quietly ensured no one was left behind when dinner plans were being made on the road. He was also the team’s leading scorer in 12 of his 13 years, finishing behind only Alex Mogilny in 2002-03.

Considering the club’s more recent history, Sundin points out that the string of playoff disappointments often clouds some of the good things that have happened: “You look at the team, the team has had success. Gone into the playoffs and had over 100-point seasons, there’s been lots of talent there.”

But as he learned through his own playoff runs, which included trips to the Eastern Conference final in 1999 and 2002, any team with true championship aspirations needs to forge an iron bond and establish its own culture.

In many ways, Sundin carries that culture.

“Hockey, I think, is different than many other sports, where you’re so dependent on each other on the ice because things happen, there’s always mistakes and guys fall behind,” said Sundin. “To me, also with that, the additions we made (this summer) is going to help hopefully grow this group really tight as fast as possible, obviously, but I think that’s a holistic thing that I do think is as important as just getting the talent.”

The integration of No. 1 pick Gavin McKenna is another area where Sundin can lend some first-hand expertise. He was the first European ever taken at the top of the draft, by the Quebec Nordiques in 1989, and arrived in a much different team setting than what McKenna finds himself with now.

“I think we had an average age of 21,” said Sundin. “You’re playing a lot and then you’re looking for experience, someone to talk to, and there’s no one there really who can help you because everybody’s the same age.”

In time, the idea is to have Sundin become a connective piece of tissue that runs throughout the organization.

He can be a sounding board for Chayka, but also has a deep personal connection with new associate coach Daniel Alfredsson that should help keep the front office in tune with what’s happening behind the bench. And when he looks down from the management box on players such as William Nylander and Auston Matthews — entering their 12th and 11th seasons in Toronto, respectively — he’s got a pretty good understanding about what they’re going through, too.

Unprompted, Sundin brought up some of the external discussion that’s surrounded Matthews through two injury-challenged seasons where his production fell to 27 and 33 goals.

“I think we sometimes forget he’s the No. 1 goal scorer in the league the last nine years or whatever it is. He’s right there,” said Sundin. “I do think sometimes in Toronto, it’s a demanding market; it’s the hockey capital of the world. You’re expected to … ‘Oh, what’s wrong with Auston? He hasn’t scored 60 goals this year? Something’s wrong with him.’

“It’s really hard to deliver. For us (in management), but for Toronto Maple Leaf fans, what a treat to have a player like this. To start a season with a player like this.”