Mats Sundin: Hockey Hall of Famer

It's been a while since anybody has posted here at BoO. Will anybody even come by to read this?
I sure hope THM does.

You see, THM and I have been arguing for years about the HHOF and whether Sundin or Alfredsson or both (or neither) would or should get in. As expected, I traditionally argued Sundin should and Alfredsson should not. THM argued the opposite.

Obviously the day has come when one side of this argument has been won.

Mats Sundin is in the Hockey Hall of Fame. First Ballot, just to make sure he clearly deserves it. That ends the speculation on one front. But perhaps the argument will never end and in about four or five years we will see if Alfredsson will follow in his captain's footsteps in ways that he never did in his NHL career. My opinion still stands. If it took four years before Pavel Bure finally got admitted, it's going to take a lot longer for Alfredsson. If ever.

Despite the fact that the HHOF has the population of a small town worth of players who have not won a Stanley Cup, many fans out there think that a player should have won the NHL's ultimate trophy for their names to be idolized at Yonge and Front St.. Certainly a Stanley Cup helps, but people forget that there are many names on the Cup who don't deserve to be in the HHOF. So why can't players be in the HHOF who have never won a cup? It's not the Stanley Cup Hall of Fame, for those keeping track.

What it comes down to, for me, is this: was Mats Sundin a special player? Sundin was that, and more.  A trail blazer for his country, the best player to ever come out of Sweden when you tally up all the stats and of course the first taken 1st overall in the NHL draft. Sundin over his career scored more game winning goals than Wayne Gretzky or Steve Yzerman. He is 2nd all-time in overtime goals. He's part of the 500 goal club, 33rd all time in assists (well ahead of many HHOF players), and holds most of the records for one of the oldest hockey clubs on planet earth.

But why am I selling Sundin? He's already made it in.

The only question left now is will Daniel Alfredsson get into the HHOF some day?

THM, in the next decade or so might possibly have his day, like I am now.
Or, as I suspect it, he never will.