Mats Sundin

During this season he recorded a 30-game point streak, tied for 4th longest in league history.

Mats Johan Sundin (born 13 February 1971) is a Swedish former professional ice hockey player who played the majority of his career in the National Hockey League (NHL), retiring in 2009.

Originally drafted first overall in 1989, Sundin played his first four seasons in the NHL with the Quebec Nordiques.

Sundin was drafted by the Quebec Nordiques with the first overall pick in the 1989 NHL Entry Draft, becoming the first European-born player drafted first overall in NHL history.

At the time, Sundin was playing in the Swedish second-tier Allsvenskan for Nacka HK.

He played the following season in Sweden's Elitserien for Djurgårdens IF, helping the club to the Le Mat Trophy as league champions.

Sundin made his NHL debut with Quebec during the 1990–91 season, finishing second on the team behind Joe Sakic with 59 points.

He scored his first career NHL goal against the Hartford Whalers in his first NHL game on 4 October 1990.

After improving to 76 points in his second NHL season, he led the Nordiques with a career-high 114 points in 1992–93, emerging as one of the League's premier young players.

He was then traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1994, where he played the majority of his career, serving 11 seasons as team captain.

He played one more season with the Nordiques, recording 85 points in 84 games, before being dealt to the Toronto Maple Leafs at the 1994 Draft.

The Maple Leafs acquired Sundin in a trade on 28 June 1994.

The Nordiques sent Sundin, Garth Butcher, Todd Warriner and a 1994 first-round draft pick (acquired through the 1992 Eric Lindros deal, traded to the Washington Capitals, used to pick Nolan Baumgartner) to Toronto in exchange for Wendel Clark, Sylvain Lefebvre, Landon Wilson and a 1994 first-round draft pick (used to pick Jeff Kealty).

However, as a result of the 1994–95 lockout, Sundin's Toronto debut was delayed and he returned to Sweden to play again for Djurgårdens IF.

When NHL play resumed later that season, Sundin made an immediate impact, leading the Leafs in scoring at a point-per-game pace with 47 points.

In his third season with the Maple Leafs, Sundin recorded a 41-goal, 94-point season, the second-highest of his career and the most prolific during his tenure in Toronto.

With the departure of team captain Doug Gilmour to the New Jersey Devils during the 1996–97 season, Sundin was named Gilmour's successor, becoming the 16th Maple Leafs captain and first European captain in team history.

After an 83-point campaign in 1998–99, Sundin led the Maple Leafs into the 1999 Stanley Cup playoffs as the fourth seed in Eastern Conference.

Bolstered by the acquisitions of forward Steve Thomas and goaltender Curtis Joseph in the previous off-season, the Leafs made it to the Conference Finals against the seventh-seeded Buffalo Sabres, but were defeated in five games.

Sundin finished with a career-playoff-high 16 points in 17 playoff contests.

Sundin made another appearance in the Eastern Conference Finals with the Maple Leafs again in 2001–02, but lost to the Carolina Hurricanes in six games.

Excluding his rookie season, the shortened lockout season and his half-season with Vancouver, Sundin scored at least 70 points in every season of his career, played at least 70 games in every season and led the Maple Leafs in points in every year he was with the team, with the exception of the 2002–03 season, when Alexander Mogilny surpassed him by seven points.

In 2002, Sundin signed a six-year contract extension with Toronto for $52.5 million.

In 2002–03, after eight consecutive years as the Maple Leafs' leading scorer in the regular season, Sundin was succeeded by Alexander Mogilny, who topped Sundin's 72 points with 79.

The following season, Mogilny suffered a serious hip injury that required him to miss 12 weeks, allowing Sundin to reclaim his spot as top scorer for the Maple Leafs that season.

During the 2003–04 campaign, however, Sundin was the subject of League controversy with his infamous stick-throwing incident on 8 January 2004, against the Nashville Predators.

Breaking his stick on an attempted shot, Sundin threw it aside in disgust.

Instead of hitting the glass, The Stick inadvertently entered the crowd.

Deemed a reckless act by the NHL, Sundin was subsequently assigned a one-game suspension.

On 14 October 2006, Sundin became the first Swedish player to score 500 goals.

He is the Maple Leafs' franchise all-time leader in goals (420) and points (987).

Over his career, Sundin averaged just over a point per game (1,349 points in 1,346 NHL games).

Internationally, Sundin won three gold medals with Sweden at the World Championships and was the team captain for Sweden's gold medal at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin.

At the end of the 2007–08 season, Sundin was the longest-serving non-North American-born captain in NHL history.

Sundin last played for the Vancouver Canucks in the 2008–09 season before announcing his retirement on 30 September 2009.

He appeared in the Stanley Cup playoffs in 10 of his 18 seasons.

Sundin was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame on 26 June 2012, in his first year of eligibility.

He became the second Swede, following Börje Salming (another long-time Maple Leafs player), to be chosen to the Hall of Fame.

Sundin was also inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2013.

In 2017 Sundin was named one of the '100 Greatest NHL Players' in history.