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Photo: Reuters/Fred Thornhill

The franchise’s all-time goals and points leader is a first ballot Hall of Fame inductee. Congrats Mats.

A model of consistency and clutch play for his 13 seasons in a Leaf jersey (11 spent as Captain) – breaking the major franchise records along the way – Sundin’s importance was also substantial in the European hockey community as the first ever European to be drafted first overall. At the time of his retirement, he was the longest serving non-North American captain in NHL history. He was the first Swede to join the 500-goal and 1000-point clubs and captained his national team to an Olympic gold medal in 2006.

For some Mats tributes, be sure to check out MLHS’ “Memories of Mats” series posted in the buildup to Sundin’s banner raising ceremony in February.

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Alec Brownscombe is the founder and editor of MapleLeafsHotStove.com, where he has written daily about the Leafs since September of 2008. He's published five magazines on the team entitled "The Maple Leafs Annual" with distribution in Chapters and newsstands across the country. He also co-hosted "The Battle of the Atlantic," a weekly show on TSN1200 that covered the Leafs and the NHL in-depth. Alec is a graduate of Trent University and Algonquin College with his diploma in Journalism. In 2014, he was awarded Canada's Best Hockey Blogger honours by Molson Canadian. You can contact him at alec.brownscombe@mapleleafshotstove.com.