Mats Sundin and the Difference Between Winning and Meaning

There is something funny about the way we talk about hockey careers. We tend to reduce everything to one question: Did the guy win the Stanley Cup? If the answer is no, somehow the rest of the story can get pushed into the background. That seems a little unfair when you think about Mats Sundin.

Sundin spent 13 seasons as the face and captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs. He became the franchise's all-time leader in goals and points, finished his career with 564 goals and 1,349 points, and was essentially a point-per-game player throughout his NHL career. He never won the Stanley Cup.

Sundin embodied a Maple Leafs team that struggled to win.

The Maple Leafs' drought had already stretched for 27 years when Sundin arrived in Toronto in 1994. It continued for another 13 years while he wore the blue and white. He reached the conference final twice with Toronto but never made the Stanley Cup Final. So, if winning is the only measurement, what exactly are we supposed to make of Sundin's career?

This is where the distinction between winning and having a meaningful career gets interesting. Winning is easy to measure. There is a parade, a trophy and a name engraved on the Cup. You either have it, or you don't. Meaning is a little harder to measure.

Sundin gave Toronto 13 years. He produced when the team needed production. He carried a considerable offensive load on some teams that weren't exactly overflowing with elite talent. He became the first European captain in Maple Leafs history and, for the most part, led without winning as much as he likely should have. And then there was the way he handled the end.

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Sundin refused to waive his no-trade clause at the trade deadline.

When Toronto wanted him to waive his no-trade clause so the club could move him at the deadline, Sundin refused. He wasn't interested in becoming a rental player for somebody else's playoff run. There is no need to romanticize that decision. It was his choice, and reasonable people can disagree. But it tells us something about how Sundin viewed his career.

He wasn't simply passing through Toronto looking for the next opportunity. He had become part of the place. That's the part that gets lost when everything is reduced to winning.

Sundin made the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Hockey is full of players who won Cups and are barely remembered outside the cities where they played. It is also full of players who never won the ultimate prize but became part of a franchise's identity. Sundin is one of those players. His number was retired. He went into the Hockey Hall of Fame. More importantly, generations of Maple Leafs fans still talk about him with affection.

Sundin didn't win everything, but he had an amazingly solid career, and he left something behind. Maybe those aren't the same thing.

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