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Mats Sundin confirmed in a radio interview on Tuesday that the issue he continues to wrestle with is whether or not he wants to resume his NHL career.
Speaking publicly for the first time in three months, Sundin was interviewed by Toronto radio station 640-AM. The long-time Toronto Maple Leafs captain wanted to make it clear that he's not trying to decide on where he wants to play in 2008-09, but whether he wants to play.
“I'm just trying to follow my heart,” he said.
“I haven't even looked at the other options. I want to deal with the first question first. My first question is do I want to play any more? I have to get past this question of whether I want to play or not.”
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As a result, there will be no announcements regarding the future of Mats Sundin's hockey career when he visits Toronto later this week to play in a charity game.
“I wish I had a date or a timeline in which I could tell everyone what I'm going to do,” Sundin said. “But I don't know. So I can't say anything yet.”
Sundin, 37, was asked if he would make a decision by the time training camps open around the league in two weeks.
“The way it looks right now, probably not,” he answered. “I want to make sure that I'm ready to mentally and physically play. Where I am right now is that I'm not ready to make that decision.”
Five months have elapsed since Sundin and the Leafs' season concluded. His agent, J.P. Barry, maintains that six NHL clubs have interest in Sundin. The Vancouver Canucks, Montreal Canadiens, Leafs, New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers have admitted to pursuing Sundin's services. The Canucks offer is an extremely lucrative two-year, $20-million (U.S.) pact.
Sundin has come under fire for his prolonged pondering on this matter, but he frequently made the point in his interview that retiring or continuing to play has been a difficult decision.
“I'm 37 years old and I hope people can accept that I make my own decisions, especially now that I don't have a contract or an obligation from any employee,” he said. “I feel I'm entitled to make my own decision.
“If I'm not ready to make a decision on my future career, I really would hope people would respect that it's up to me to make that decision.”
Sundin admitted that he hasn't trained as hard this summer as he has in the past, but still has remained in decent shape even though he hasn't skated much this summer in Sweden.
