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Mats Sundin Stays!
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| electro88 |
| pwn3d :thepirate |
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| terrytutone |
| ouch. Thats gonna be bad for business. |
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| The Ear |
| lol....this is too damn funny for words. As the Sex Pistols once sang ... "No future for you" Leafs fans. |
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| MarkT |
I support him in his position. He has a contract and he can't be faulted for not wanting to agree to alter it. Just as we have no sympathy for athletes who want to bail mid-way through their contract for more money, why begrudge Mats by feeling that he should waive his no-trade clause? Plus, he took LESS money to stay here this year when he could have earned far more on the open market. It's unfair to hold him responsible for past management incompetence.
Personally, I think the best scenario for the team would have been to trade him for another star player or for prospects and then resign him in the off-season. Fletcher claims to not like those types of unspoken deals and Mats claims to not like the 'rent-a-player' path to a Cup win. I can't blame either one of them for feeling that way. |
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| terrytutone |
| quote: | Originally posted by MarkT
It's unfair to hold him responsible for past management incompetence.
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Hes the captain of the team. Hes gotta accept some of the responsibility for the team's poor performance. Not to mention his reason for staying is entirely selfish. If he had the team's best interest in mind he would have waived the clause and came back next season. The fans are only going to hate him for this. |
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| terrytutone |
| quote: | Originally posted by MarkT
Personally, I think the best scenario for the team would have been to trade him for another star player or for prospects and then resign him in the off-season. |
This is exactly what everyone had in mind. Leafs would have been given draft picks for Sundin and resigned him but Mats totally ed it up. Instead the Leafs paid for another season where Mats failed to perform. And i dont believe any other team would have been willing to give him what the Leafs did. |
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| Dave Akermanis |
lawl.
this city and its retarded sports fans. Don't hate on Mats, hate on the management.
His job is to play hockey - not to secure futures for the Maple Leafs.
:whip: :whip: :whip: :whip: :whip: |
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| ChemEnhanced |
| I respect his decision.....that being said, the entire no trade/no movement clauses should be outlawed......all they are for is to give more power to the players when they shouldn't have that kind of power....they don't want them because they love the city they play for...they just want them so they can dictate who they get traded to. |
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| smuncky |
| quote: | Originally posted by terrytutone
Instead the Leafs paid for another season where Mats failed to perform. |
wow. :rolleyes: |
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| NuERA |
| I hate the leafs more than anyone, but Mats needs to stay in Toronto. Just like Saku needs to stay in Montreal. They are career franchise players that belong on those teams. It just wouldn't be right otherwise. |
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| MarkT |
I couldn't agree more with this article (and much of what this columnist writes).
http://www.thestar.com/Sports/Hockey/article/306584
| quote: | Classless Leafs don't deserve Mats
Feb 25, 2008 04:30 AM
Rosie DiManno
Doug Gilmour. Wendel Clark. Rob Ramage. Rick Vaive. Darryl Sittler. Dave Keon.
All were Toronto Maple Leaf captains. And none retired from hockey in that capacity.
Mats Sundin intends to do so, damn it.
He is a man of his word, even if the franchise that employs him is not as equally steadfast.
But they shoot captains in this town. Some go tearfully, some plead to be released from bondage, some never forgive.
As one potential successor to Sundin said in the dressing room the other night when it was suggested he may inherit the captaincy: "How do you politely say no?''
Sundin had been politely saying no – or variations thereof, minimally qualified – to trade overtures for weeks on end. Although the formal invitation to consider relocation was extended by interim general manager Cliff Fletcher only a few days ago, and Sundin's input sought on preferred destinations, the answer that came back last night was as always stated.
Not going. Not waiving.
Can't make me.
Now we can all get back to the business of autopsying another lost season and apportioning blame.
Sundin took it upon himself yesterday to deny, as was written here, that he has ever blamed GM passim John Ferguson for either the club's troubles or his own predicament as reluctant trade bait and putative corrective, via prospects obtained in return.
"It's not true,'' Sundin insists. "I've never said that. I don't blame other people for what's going on. I would never blame John Ferguson for the whole situation in Toronto.''
Ferguson isn't the only villain of the piece, obviously. But his mishandling of long-term contracts lumbered with no-trade caveats and his poor assessment of talent has left the Leafs in a terrible fix, and the pressure mounted on Sundin to fix it by departing.
What Sundin may or may not be saying privately to friends is a fart in a mitten. What he has said repeatedly, and asserted through a released statement after speaking with Fletcher last night, is that he remains, however unfathomably, devoted to this club, to his teammates.
But there is a recurring theme here in the melodramas of Maple Leaf Land.
This is an organization without class and without conscience. Was a time that could be attributed to the deranged persona of Harold Ballard, a bully and misanthrope who abused staff, shamed players and held fans in contempt. But at least there was a face to put to the bungle and a desk where the buck stopped.
If you were to call the Leafs' front office today and ask to speak with the person in charge, who in the world might that be? It's a board of directors accountable to no one except shareholders and immune from scandal.
A few years back, the Leafs announced things were going to be done different. Alumni were welcomed back, the diaspora of beloved ex-Leafs embraced, vows of integrity expressed. In practice, little has changed. It remains a franchise without a soul, for all its iconic stature, thoughtless and disloyal.
Can you imagine the Detroit Red Wings treating Steve Yzerman, when in the eclipse of his career, as the Leafs are treating Sundin, even as respectful as Fletcher has attempted to be? Or the Montreal Canadiens similarly rushing Bob Gainey – his sweater retired on Saturday – out the door, with a slam-bang-thank-you capitaine?
The public has grown weary of sports idols who swap loyalties for the green, and rosier environments.
Would serve the Leafs right if, denied a deal for Sundin at the deadline, he refuses to re-sign here now.
But he won't.
The guy's only crime is that he's not a mercenary, that he's true.
All else is false. |
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| Ania_xox |
^^^ Holler that.
His teeth are nasty and he looks like Lisa Simpson
but Mats pwns
Besides Mr. Cherry - he's the main ingredient in my Hockey Night in Canada :toocool: |
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