I don’t know how much of this I can take… I wish Mats would just come out and say what he wants rather than being silent.

Posted by Karina on 06/23/08 at 06:23 PM ET

I’d say its a lock he plays, and I agree with Paul that he probably doesn’t sign before July 1...I don’t see what advantage there is for him...if he waits, more teams are involved which probably drives his price up!

Posted by Mac from Canada on 06/23/08 at 06:27 PM ET

Mats may be burning his bridges.  Gainey and Sather won’t wait for him to make up his mind.  there are only a handful of UFA’s that can considered star players and they will move on to them if Sundin waits.  If Sundin has really said he wants to go to one of these 2 teams then he will be dissapointed when they no longer want him.

He may get more money elsewhere but it may not be where he wants to play.

Posted by Mr. Nasty on 06/23/08 at 06:36 PM ET

I wish Mats would just come out and say what he wants rather than being silent.

Sorry, but that is such a female thing to say; you know, open communication and all

Aside from that brilliant observation, let me add this. Mats has no shortage of options but all of them involve heartbreak. Stay with the Leafs, retire without a championship. Leave, and possibly win, but do so in a place you haven’t put your heart and soul in to for over a decade.

Stevie Y feels for him, and I’m obliged by the sacred blood rites that are Red Wing fandom to follow The Captain.

p.s. Isn’t Mats getting what he wants? He’s being swooned over by several teams before saying a word.

Posted by Osrt on 06/23/08 at 06:47 PM ET

I’d go into hiding until July 1st and consider all offers then - until that day, stop flying to Sweden to nag! 

No good choices for a man who wants to stay in Toronto.

Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 06/23/08 at 07:05 PM ET

Like sand through the hourglass, so are the days of Sundin’s life. Which team is next on the list to get “exclusive” rights to talk with Mats? Frankly, I just want this saga to be over with. Pick a team quick Sundin!

Mats has no shortage of options but all of them involve heartbreak.

And most, if not all, of the options involve amounts of money that would make Solomon blush.

Posted by Aphaea from Pennsylvania on 06/23/08 at 07:17 PM ET

Not necessarily Aphaea. He’ll take a “pay cut” if he signs with the Wings.

Posted by Osrt on 06/23/08 at 08:04 PM ET

Lordy.  I swear, this is a non-story invented by Sportsnet… and I say that even assuming it’s true.

The facts are: Sundin’s agent was given the exclusive rights to negotiate his client with the Habs as of last Friday. Then Sportsnet broke this news today.  Then The National Post decided to present the question to Fletcher as “who else is talking to our Mats?” instead of the way Sportsnet originally reported the story, which was that it was a past arrangement, not a current one. 

And so the TO hockey media starts to froth at the mouth…

Like Paul says, this story gets bigger (and I say, “stupider") before it gets resolved. 

I figure the rest of the TO media is ticked off now because they all missed the NYR connection last week, so now they’ll milk it for all they’re worth.

Posted by Alanah McGinley from British Columbia on 06/23/08 at 08:58 PM ET

Sounds like summers in Toronto are as boring as plain oatmeal.

Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 06/23/08 at 09:12 PM ET

Cliff Fletcher has made so many incendiary comments that have led to nothing that they might as well, if you’ll excuse the political pun (politics bad, hockey good), call him “Shock and Awe” Fletcher--in the literal sense of the term.  He makes statements in a deliberate attempt to shock and provoke a reaction, and he stands back and waits for the media to drop their jaws in awe…

Because it’s Toronto, they do, and they hang on to every word he says.  This BS about the concept that the Gainey-led Canadiens will go absolutely bonkers in an attempt to win just because it’s their 100th anniversary, as if they’re going to go into a frothing frenzy and toss common sense to the four winds because they’ve got to have a letter-perfect year?  The Leaf media’s hopping up and down in glee because they’re convinced that Gainey’s offered up half the team to get to jet the current Montreal Canadiens, half its alumni team, and a 747 full of, “Pick us, Mats!” balloons to Sundin’s doorstep, but that’s not what’s really going on. 

Has he bought Darcy Tucker out yet?  Or gotten Bryan McCabe to agree to waive his no-trade clause?  Or turned over half the roster? 

The trade deadline and the insanity surrounding it proved that Mats Sundin likes to make big decisions about the future of his playing career (if he plays at all) very slowly and very deliberately.  He has no reason to change his modus operandi because Cliff Fletcher says that the Habs are pining for Sundin like he’s a( um...what’s a pertinent cultural reference regarding teenage girls pining over the latest pre-fabricated pop band...) Jonas Brother or something. 

If Sportsnet wants to stir the pot by suggesting that Fletcher may have parlayed a window of “exclusivity” to the Rangers for a case of Labatt and a personalized postcard from Sean Avery’s summer vacation spot to be named later, okay.  Nothing happened.  Sundin’s still thinking, and when he makes up his mind, he’ll make up his mind, on his own time line, on his own terms, and regardless of whatever juicy storyline is offered up by Laff Nation as to why some team is going to trade two thirds of its roster to Trader Cliff to be able to ask Sundin exactly thirty-eight questions about his scalp care regimen.

Posted by George James Malik from South Lyon, MI on 06/24/08 at 05:08 AM ET