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At the beginning of this season, the NHL lost two of its premier players of the last two decades. Mats Sundin, 38, and Joe Sakic, 40, two first-round draft picks of a franchise that has since moved on to greener pastures, had both realized that it was time to move on, with age, injuries and will affecting each of their decisions in different ways. Now that these great careers are (barring an unfathomable comeback) over, how will history judge Mats Sundin and Joe Sakic?
The Consistent Leader
Among the incredible benefits of YouTube is the ability to witness moments in history that you either were too young for or missed the first time. In 1989, I wasn’t enough of a hockey follower to take an interest in the draft, so for all those in my situation you can check out this to see a clip of a baby-faced Mats Sundin, all of 18 years old, becoming the first European ever taken as the #1 overall draft pick, by the Quebec Nordiques. Sundin would not disappoint: he had an excellent rookie season, with 59 points and 5.4 GVT, in 1991, on an awful Nordiques team, and 2 years later had helped the team perform one of the greatest turnarounds in NHL history, from 52 to 104 points in the standings and from 21st in a 22-team league to 4th. Sundin was a huge part of this, scoring 114 points and posting an incredible 25.7 GVT.
However, the next season the Nordiques regressed and missed the playoffs, with Sundin also somewhat regressing to a 16.4 GVT. In what I can only assume was an attempt to “shake things up”, the Nordiques decided to trade him to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Wendel Clark. I’ll let you guess who got the better end of that deal.
In Toronto, Sundin would add to his reputation, becoming a team leader and eventually being named captain in 1997 after the departure of Doug Gilmour. During his 13 seasons with the Maple Leafs, Sundin led the team in scoring 12 times. He scored at least 72 points every season except lockout-shortened 1995, and would become the franchise’s all-time leader in goals and points. All that eluded him was true playoff success: while the Leafs were often competitive, they would only reach as far as the Conference Finals once, in 1999. Despite this, Sundin put up 70 points and 31 GVT in his 77 playoff games in Toronto.
Mats Sundin
Name Team(s) Season Rank GP G A Pts RPM OGVT DGVT SGVT GVT
Mats Sundin Quebec 90_91 214 80 23 36 59 2.1 4.3 1.1 0.0 5.4
Mats Sundin Quebec 91_92 99 80 33 43 76 0.3 9.4 2.3 0.0 11.7
Mats Sundin Quebec 92_93 15 80 47 67 114 17.2 20.9 4.9 0.0 25.7
Mats Sundin Quebec 93_94 61 84 32 53 85 5.9 13.0 3.4 0.0 16.4
Mats Sundin Toronto 94_95 35 47 23 24 47 4.8 17.1 3.1 0.0 20.1
Mats Sundin Toronto 95_96 46 76 33 50 83 16.1 15.2 4.4 0.0 19.6
Mats Sundin Toronto 96_97 18 82 41 53 94 24.2 20.0 4.1 0.0 24.1
Mats Sundin Toronto 97_98 39 82 33 41 74 17.5 14.9 5.0 0.0 19.9
Mats Sundin Toronto 98_99 23 82 31 52 83 12.1 19.1 3.6 0.0 22.8
Mats Sundin Toronto 99_00 33 73 32 41 73 13.3 15.9 4.0 0.0 19.9
Mats Sundin Toronto 00_01 54 82 28 46 74 13.1 14.1 5.2 0.0 19.2
Mats Sundin Toronto 01_02 19 82 41 39 80 -1.1 19.5 3.2 0.0 22.7
Mats Sundin Toronto 02_03 45 75 37 35 72 -3.2 15.7 2.5 0.0 18.2
Mats Sundin Toronto 03_04 19 81 31 44 75 9.6 19.0 4.1 0.0 23.1
Mats Sundin Toronto 05_06 50 70 31 47 78 18.0 15.0 3.6 -1.2 17.4
Mats Sundin Toronto 06_07 46 75 27 49 76 1.5 13.6 2.6 2.3 18.5
Mats Sundin Toronto 07_08 20 74 32 46 78 30.3 17.6 5.1 1.1 23.8
Mats Sundin VAN 08_09 394 41 9 19 28 -8.7 2.5 0.6 0.4 3.6
Mats Sundin Total 90_09 1346 564 785 1349 173 266.8 62.6 2.6 332.0
Sundin was also a star in international play: he played for 5 world championship teams for Sweden, helping them win gold medals three times, in 1991, 1992 and 1998. He represented Sweden three times in the Canada Cup and its successor the World Cup. He participated in three Olympic tournaments, winning gold in 2006, and leading the tounrnament in scoring in 2002, even though Sweden was embarrassingly eliminated by Belarus.
Sundin ranks 29th in all-time GVT in the NHL and, adjusting for scoring levels, he is 17th on the all-time points list. He is the longest-serving European captain in NHL history. Among other amazing stats, he is one of only two players (with Marcel Dionne) to score 20 or more goals in his first 16 (!) seasons. Despite his lack of playoff success, he should be a slam-dunk Hall-of-Famer, and remembered as one of the 50 or so best players ever to lace on skates.
The Franchise
When our editor, Andrew Rothstein, asked me to give him a few pieces of information on Joe Sakic when he announced his retirement, my initial answer was simple: “He was awesome.”
I stand by my assessment.
Joe Sakic was the heart of the Quebec Nordiques and Colorado Avalanche for over 20 years. With Steve Yzerman, he is one of the two great leaders of the inter-lockout era, leading the Avalanche to two Stanley Cups, in 1996 and 2001. However, things were not always this great for Sakic: when he joined the Nordiques in 1988, they were already the worst team in the NHL. Things would get much worse before they got better.
In Sakic’s 2nd season, the Nordiques basically fell apart, recording one of the worst seasons in modern NHL history with only 12 wins and 31 points. Nordiques players had the 11 worst +/- scores in the league. Veterans Peter Stastny and Michel Goulet were dealt away during the season, but through it all, Sakic was the only bright spot with 102 points and 14.7 GVT. His +/- of -40 looks poor on its surface, but when normalized, he actually produced an RPM (Relative Plus/Minus) of +20.2!
The next season would see the arrival of Sundin, and the beginning of a long climb back to respectability. Sakic would be one of the top 10 or 15 scorers in the NHL each year, with point totals of 109, 94, 105 and 92, and the Nordiques would eventually make the playoffs, only to falter again in 1994. Then, within less than 18 months, three events would occur that would transform Sakic’s long nightmare into a dream, and help him to cement his legend.
The first was the arrival of Peter Forsberg. Forsberg had come as part of a package that the Nordiques received for Eric Lindros, which is amazing considering that Forsberg alone turned out to be a more successful player than Lindros. Forsberg’s presence gave the Nordiques the best one-two center combination in the league, with only the Red Wings’ Yzerman and Fedorov capable of competing with them. The second was the move of the franchise to Colorado. The Denver market was much richer than Quebec City, and was willing to shell out big money as long as the team won, which it did. The third event was the acquisition of Patrick Roy, which put the last piece into place for the Avalanche to become one of the all-time great teams.
The combination of Sakic, Forsberg and Roy combined the best center pairing in the league with the best goaltender. It’s as if today’s Penguins, with Malkin and Crosby, added… well, in fact no goaltender today is as dominant as Roy was in his prime, although Martin Brodeur, Roberto Luongo and Henrik Lundqvist have come close. Needless to say, the Avalanche would win the Cup that year, after beating the Red Wings, who had set an NHL record with 62 wins that year, and then sweeping the Florida Panthers in the Finals. (For my younger readers, yes the Florida Panthers have made the playoffs at some point). Sakic was the easy Conn Smythe winner, leading the playoffs with 18 goals, 34 points and 14.7 GVT in 22 games, one of the most dominant postseason performances ever.
Sakic would spend the rest of his career as one of the league’s elite players, near the top of the scoring race. In 2000-01, his 13th season in the league, he had his best year yet, second in the league in scoring with 118 points; his GVT was an astronomical GVT 39.6, the highest by any non-goaltender in the last 13 years and the highest in the last 30 years by anybody not named Wayne or Mario. He won the Hart that season as league MVP, and followed it up with another dominating postseason performance, with Forsberg injured, leading the league in playoff scoring again and leading his team to the Stanley Cup again.
Joe Sakic
Name Team(s) Season Rank GP G A Pts RPM OGVT DGVT SGVT GVT
Joe Sakic Quebec 88_89 232 70 23 39 62 -13.5 4.6 0.5 0.0 5.1
Joe Sakic Quebec 89_90 53 80 39 63 102 20.2 12.5 2.2 0.0 14.7
Joe Sakic Quebec 90_91 30 80 48 61 109 4.3 17.6 0.9 0.0 18.5
Joe Sakic Quebec 91_92 32 69 29 65 94 24.4 14.2 4.5 0.0 18.8
Joe Sakic Quebec 92_93 25 78 48 57 105 -4.3 17.7 3.1 0.0 20.8
Joe Sakic Quebec 93_94 64 84 28 64 92 -0.4 13.1 2.7 0.0 15.8
Joe Sakic Quebec 94_95 15 47 19 43 62 -9.0 23.3 2.4 0.0 25.7
Joe Sakic COL 95_96 7 82 51 69 120 9.0 27.4 2.7 0.0 30.1
Joe Sakic COL 96_97 70 65 22 52 74 -14.7 13.0 1.5 0.0 14.5
Joe Sakic COL 97_98 67 64 27 36 63 3.8 13.1 2.1 0.0 15.1
Joe Sakic COL 98_99 15 73 41 55 96 24.4 22.9 5.4 0.0 28.2
Joe Sakic COL 99_00 15 60 28 53 81 30.9 18.2 5.8 0.0 24.0
Joe Sakic COL 00_01 2 82 54 64 118 37.9 31.5 8.2 0.0 39.6
Joe Sakic COL 01_02 31 82 26 53 79 6.8 15.0 5.5 0.0 20.5
Joe Sakic COL 02_03 105 58 26 32 58 -9.5 11.9 1.8 0.0 13.6
Joe Sakic COL 03_04 10 81 33 54 87 12.5 21.9 4.0 0.0 25.9
Joe Sakic COL 05_06 47 82 32 55 87 13.5 15.7 4.1 -2.1 17.8
Joe Sakic COL 06_07 16 82 36 64 100 7.0 20.9 3.7 1.3 25.9
Joe Sakic COL 07_08 203 44 13 27 40 -5.1 5.3 1.7 1.4 8.5
Joe Sakic COL 08_09 579 15 2 10 12 -2.6 0.6 0.5 -0.4 0.7
Joe Sakic Total 88_09 1378 625 1016 1641 135.4 320.2 63.3 0.3 383.8
Sakic’s career numbers are simply among the best the league has ever seen. His career GVT of 383.8 is 19th all-time, 9th among forwards. His career playoff GVT of 83.6 is 8th among players who didn’t inflated their scoring totals during the run-and-gun 80s, his 188 playoff points is second, two points behind Brett Hull. Adjusting for scoring levels, he ranks 6th all-time in points, behind only Gretzky, Howe, Messier, Francis, and Jagr, but ahead of greats like Yzerman, Esposito, and even Mario. Many of his Avalanche franchise records probably won’t be broken 50 years from now, if they are ever broken at all.
Sakic will be remembered, along with Jagr, Yzerman, Hull, Roy, Hasek and Lidstrom, as one of the defining players of his era, and one of the greatest players, captains and leaders of all-time. Simply put, he was awesome.
Tom Awad is an author of Hockey Prospectus.
You can contact Tom by clicking here or click here to see Tom's other articles.
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