Advent Day 13 - Mats Sundin

In the superstitious world of hockey the number 13 is something of a taboo. The majority of players who do wear it are European, one who has worn it probably longer than anyone else is Mats Sundin. He may also be the first player to see the number retired.

Sundin came to the NHL in 1990 after being drafted first overall (the first European ever to do so) by Quebec in the 1989 draft. He led the Nordiques in points in 1992-93 with 114 before being traded to Toronto in '94 in connection with the Lindros debacle. (Quebec got, among other things, Wendel Clark as part of the deal..)

He took over the Leafs captaincy in 1997, an honor he still holds 10 years later. He's led the team every year he's been there in points (except for 2002-03 when Mogilny bettered him). In fact "Sudden" is now the all time scoring leader in Maple Leafs history leading in both points and goals. Taking both titles away from Darryl Sittler earlier this season. He is the only Leaf player to score more than 400 goals - and oddly holds the NHL record for most overtime goals with 15.

Besides playing in 9 All-Star games Sundin has played for the Swedish National team (often as the captain) in the last 3 Olympics as well as numerous World Championships (3 golds, 2 bronze and a silver..). In 2006 Sweden took the gold in Turin beating Finland in the final.

Notes on the jerseys: the only change the Nordiques made to their jerseys while in the NHL was the addition of red to the numbers in 1991. In 1991-92 the Leafs used their old style jerseys as part of the NHL's 75th anniversary, their main jerseys at the time were the ones with the two-tone sleeves that they had used for more than 20 years. The next season saw them use the vintage style jerseys as their main uniform. Besides altering between new and old Leaf logos, they made subtle changes over the next 15 years. They changed the font for the names and numbers in 1997 to the current style used for the name plates. The numbers originally matched this style but were changed back to the Leafs block font in 2000. They also switched to the TML shoulder patches instead of the old leaf logos. (I will never understand why.) The striped jersey without a name was used as an alternate in the 1996-97 season. It was the original jersey style used by Toronto in their first full season in the NHL (70 years earlier in 1927). The green jersey was used for one game in 2002 celebrating the Leafs 75th anniversary, and is based on the Toronto St.Pats jerseys worn the season they became the Maple Leafs in 1926-27.

More on Sundin can be found at Legends of Hockey here.

His jerseys in the database can be found here.

And...the classic Nike commercial...