Sundin talks pressure to win in Maple Leafs homecoming in sit-down with NHL.com

The Toronto Maple Leafs have made more than two dozen changes in personnel on and off the ice since last season, none more significant than the hirings of John Chayka as general manager and Mats Sundin as senior executive adviser. With training camp set to begin this week, NHL.com sat down with them in a two-part series that provides an inside look.

Today, Part 2: Mats Sundin.

TORONTO -- Mats Sundin thought it was time.

Time to throw himself back headfirst into the hockey world.

Time to return home. His hockey home.

Time to do his part to once again help the Toronto Maple Leafs, the franchise he played 981 games with from 1994 to 2008.

So when Keith Pelley, the president of Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment, reached out to see if the 55-year-old had any interest in rejoining the Toronto organization, he decided to jump at the opportunity.

“It’s an honor to be part of one of the greatest hockey franchises in the world in what I consider to be the best hockey city in the world,” Sundin told  NHL.com.

“It was when I played. And it is now.”

Sundin, the Maple Leafs’ all-time leader in points (987), moved back to Sweden after playing his final NHL game in 2009. There, living in the Stockholm area, he and wife, Josephine Johansson, raised their three children, daughter Bonnie, and sons Nathanael and Julian.

Now, with his kids being older -- the eldest, Bonnie, is 14 -- Sundin decided to make the move.

And on May 3, he was hired along with Chayka. 

“I think it’s great having Mats back,” Maple Leafs ambassador and fellow franchise icon Wendel Clark said at the Leafs & Legends Charity Golf Classic at RattleSnake Point golf club in Milton, Ontario, on Monday. “Mats is very level-headed and loved playing here. And now he’s part of it again.

“He’s been through it all (here). He understands it. And he loved playing through it all. And that’s the best part of this. When the team leader of your organization has been here, played here and loved playing here, that’s a great thing for the team.”

Here is our Q&A with Sundin ahead of training camp:

For starters, the obvious question is: Why now?

MS: “I guess the idea started in the spring, actually, when I had a couple of meetings with Keith Pelley. I’ve also known John (Chayka) for a while now and I know what kind of person he is. Not only for the skill he brings to his work but, like I said, for the person he is. So it just seemed like a chance I didn’t want to pass up.”

Does it seem surreal to be back?

MS: “Well, if you would have asked me 10 years ago about an opportunity like this, I probably would not have been ready. But I think now the kids are old enough. It was a great opportunity to come back here and get involved in hockey.”

You still dabbled in the sport in the past decade, right?

MS: “I’ve done some smaller things with the Swedish national team. I was part of the management team for Team Sweden with Daniel Alfredsson and Nick Lidstrom at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. I did some work for Swedish TV this past winter at the Olympics in Italy.”

How quickly did you jump at the offer from the Maple Leafs?

MS: “Look, my heart was and still is with the Toronto Maple Leafs. And when Keith asked me to join John, it was an easy call. I’d usually be in Toronto four or five times a year. I have my foundation here with the University of Toronto. And, obviously, I attended training camp (not as a player, he joked) a couple a years ago when (then-GM) Brad Treliving invited me.”

How difficult has it been to supplant your wife and kids and get them to buy in and move over here. Different country. Different language. Different culture?

MS: “My wife was all in. My daughter, being the oldest, had some questions. My sons, they’re excited, they were asking: ‘Does this mean we get to watch the Toronto Maple Leafs all the time?’ I said, ‘Ya, you can.’ Then it was like: ‘Let’s go!’ They’re already fitting in. They're already off to school.”

Since you and John were hired, there have been seemingly endless changes. What have the past four months been like?

MS: “I still have the passion for the game so I’m really looking forward to what lies ahead. I’m just trying to keep up with this guy (gestures at Chayka). We’ve covered a lot of ground here. The past 16 weeks have been busy. But they’ve been great. And now really looking forward to the season.”

How driven are you to get this franchise on track after it finished in the basement of the Atlantic Division and 15th in the Eastern Conference last season? For perspective: In your time as a player with the Maple Leafs, the team won seven Stanley Cup Playoff series. In the past 22 years, it’s won just two.

MS: “I mean, for me, it’s simple. It’s the greatest hockey fanbase in the world. For example, when the Toronto Maple Leafs play in Los Angeles, half the crowd is cheering for the Leafs. It’s like that in a lot of places in North America. They went to Europe to play a couple of years ago and it was like that there too. The Toronto Maple Leafs have fans all across the world, millions of them, and with that comes a lot of love. John always says the love, the passion for this organization, for the logo, for the city, is huge.”

But what about when it goes the other way? Think about the 2025 Eastern Conference Second Round against the Florida Panthers when they displayed their frustration by throwing their jerseys on the Scotiabank Area ice which.

MS: “Listen, when you have such a passionate fanbase, with that comes feelings that, when things are not going well, people are going to express themselves. That’s part of the game, like it is with anything in life. And Leafs fans should be frustrated. It’s been a long time (1967) since there was a championship in Toronto. It’s part of the responsibility we have here: to change that narrative.”

Having said that, playing in the hockey fishbowl that is Toronto is not for everyone. Some players just don’t like the attention, the notoriety, the spotlight that goes hand in hand with playing here. You were a private person by nature when you were the Maple Leafs captain, yet you embraced the role and the privilege of playing here. How do you sell players on that?

MS: “Yes it’s different if you play for Toronto than it is compared to playing in Carolina or Florida or Vegas or whatever. And I think the one things John and I have to do about that is to create a good and comfortable environment for these guys. So, I think all the white noise that goes with playing in a big market like Toronto and being a Toronto Maple Leaf, I think that’s a big job we have to do: to make these guys feel like hockey players, and that we’re all out here to win.”

Hall of Famer Doug Gilmour once said if you show the fans here that you are working your butt off while being appreciative and humble towards them, you’ll never have to buy another meal in this town. When you are looking for players to bring in, how important is it that they have the character to embrace playing here and everything that goes with it?

MS: “I do believe it’s probably extra important here. What’s your background? How grounded are you? How much love do you have not just for the game but to come wear that Toronto Maple Leaf crest when you go out there? Most players, when their careers are over and they’ve done a few stops, if they’ve been in Toronto as part of that journey, most of them will say it was the best time of their career. Because there’s very few players who don’t want to represent a team where it means so much for a city and the millions of people who support the team. And yes, when it comes to the external stuff, there is a lot of media coverage, fans get upset when you lose games, and there are a lot of emotions. But there’s nothing better than to play in a market where millions of people actually care about the outcome of games.”

The passion of the fans you refer to was front and center during the epic Battle of Ontario playoff series between the Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators in the early 2000s. Alfredsson, a fellow Swedish Hall of Famer like yourself, was Public Enemy No. 1 in Toronto. Now you’ve brought him in as an assistant to coach Jim Hiller after he was part of the coaching staff in Ottawa. What role did you play in recruiting him to cross one-time enemy lines?

MS: “I think we were very fortunate. I think interviewing him and, understanding that his contract with the Senators had expired July 1, it was obvious how much he could bring to the table for us. We’ve actually known each other for 30 years. We were on the same line when we won an Olympic gold medal together with Sweden in 2006. And we worked on the management team together for Team Sweden at the World Cup in 2016. Knowing the type of person he is and the hockey mind he has, he’s a welcomed addition.”

Your face was a mixture of surprise and glee as the Maple Leafs representative for the NHL Draft Lottery in May when the ping pong ball fell your way, giving you the No. 1 pick, which you eventually used for Penn State forward Gavin McKenna.  As a former No. 1 pick yourself and former captain of the Maple Leafs, how much support and guidance can you provide about this market for a kid from Whitehorse, Yukon? For that matter, how much can Wendel, Auston Matthews and John Tavares be there for him, too, since they’re all previous No. 1 picks?

MS: “I think for Gavin, he's coming into really good situation. I think the most important people for him are the rest of the guys in the dressing room. John. Auston. He's got Willie (Nylander) there. He's got Sergei Bobrovsky. Morgan Rielly. It's a veteran team that he’s coming into. Sometimes a No. 1 pick comes in and they’re joining a team that’s in a complete rebuild, a much younger team. So he's going to be able to soak lessons in from some really, really true professionals and great players. So that's going to be great for him.”

Finally, what would it mean to bring a championship to Toronto. As a player, you reached the conference final twice, but your teams could never get over the hump.

“If there ever is a city or fanbase that deserves a title, it’s this one. And John and I will do everything we can to make that happen.”