Mats Sundin might become a more frequent face around the Maple Leafs again.
Already making two trips back to Toronto the past two months from his preferred privacy in Sweden — a club invitation to take in training camp, the other to promote his new book — Sundin clearly enjoyed re-connecting with friends, teammates and fans.
During an interview this month for his autobiography, Home and Away, the Sun asked the franchise-leading scorer and former captain if there have been discussions with the team about possibly taking a more active role on or off the ice.
“We’ll see what the future brings,” Sundin said. “I was glad to be invited to camp and meet some of the guys. But coaching and management, that’s a (24/7) job. It’s something that requires a lot of commitment. And I have (three) kids.”
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Former captain Doug Gilmour had a brief turn as player development advisor and Marlies assistant coach more than a decade ago and, while he’s on the Leafs masthead as a community representative with Darryl Sittler and Wendel Clark, they and other former captains such as Rick Vaive have not been involved on the ice.
Sundin is close with Max Domi, son of one-time teammate, Tie.
Sundin could get another invite later this season if Auston Matthews passes him for most goals in franchise history. Heading into this weekend, Sundin has 420, Sittler 389 and Matthews 370.
SWEDISH STAR POWER
One of the chapters in Sundin’s book dealt with celebrity Leafs fans.
Sundin and wife Josephine were settling in at home one night in 2017 with one of their newborns, when he got a call inviting him to a Drake concert that evening at Stockholm’s Globen Arena.
Sundin tried to beg off, but the request came from the artist himself via Daniel Ek, the Swedish CEO of Spotify.
Mats and Josephine found a sitter, rushed to the venue, got VIP seating and a shout-out from the Toronto-born rapper, who told the crowd Sundin’s poster was on his bedroom wall as a kid. Drake insisted on greeting the couple backstage afterwards.
“I can finally check meeting you off my bucket list,” Drake said.
A couple of years earlier, Sundin and the late Borje Salming were invited to a lunch at the Canadian embassy in Stockholm to celebrate Nova Scotian Dr. Arthur McDonald winning the Nobel Prize for Physics.
McDonald wanted to wear his Leafs sweater to the lunch, but had to settle for a big team pin inside his suit jacket. McDonald’s son told a reporter at the Nobel ceremony that the real highlight of his father’s trip was meeting Sundin and Salming.
LORENTZ CLIMBS LADDER
Steven Lorentz was over the moon last month making the Leafs on a PTO, then getting a regular fourth-line gig.
Thursday he was promoted to the third-line left wing and will likely stay there for the Boston game, based on Friday’s practice lines, with John Tavares and Nick Robertson.
“It’s nice the coaches showed some faith to move me up a bit,” Lorentz said. “I was just told ‘don’t change your game.’ Sometimes you get moved up and start playing more skilled (to emulate the improved incumbents), but I was told keep forechecking and using my size.
“It took a little adjustment, but we started making some good plays towards the second and third periods. I have enough skill to keep up to them and know to go to the net because Robbie’s got a bullet shot.”
OH BABY
New father Morgan Rielly is learning to deal with two-month-old son McCormick and the challenges of the baby’s sleep patterns.
“If I’m up, I want to go in there and check on him,” the alternate captain said. “But I know if I wake him up, it’s my wife that probably has to deal with it. So I’ll just stay in my lane.
“(Game days) I’ll spend some time with him and that makes my day a lot more fun. But he’s not really around for the post-game stuff just yet.”
He and partner Tessa Virtue did make time last week to attend her induction into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame, Virtue going in with ice dancing partner Scott Moir for their multiple Olympic medals.
“It was a great to spend some time with her and put her at the forefront,” Rielly said. “She’s had an amazing career and she’s an amazing person.”
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