Mats Sundin's agent says that the 38-year-old Swede will reveal his future plans around December 15. IIHF.com lists ten reasons why one of hockey’s most accomplished players should play with the Montreal Canadiens before he bids his grand adieu at the 2010 Olympics.

Sundin has been a top international forward since the early '90s when he broke in with Sweden’s Tre Kronor at the 1991 IIHF World Championship in Finland.

It was in Turku he produced what has been named the best World Championship goal ever scored, an end-to-end rush against the Soviet Union which gave Sweden a 2-1 win and the gold medal.

Since then he has played for Sweden in 118 games, winning three World Championships and the Olympic gold in Turin in 2006 as well as being a dominant force on three Swedish World Cup of Hockey teams – 1991, 1996, and 2004.

His NHL numbers reveal an amazing point-a-game consistency – 17 seasons (Quebec and Toronto), 1,305 regular season games, 555 goals, 766 assists, 1,321 points. Although never a pure scorer (he never reached 50 in one season), Sundin has recorded 13 seasons with 30 goals or more.

Sundin is a free agent and has not played a single game since March 31, 2008, his last outing with the Toronto Maple Leafs, a club he's represented since 1994.

Now fans are holding their breath for an announcement that may come soon. Reports say that Sundin has been working out diligently for the last few months and that a comeback is imminent. The veteran has said that if he returns, it will be with an NHL team. This is why this list is not including a return to his old Swedish club, Djurgården in Stockholm, or a foray into KHL land in Russia.

The proud Swede must realize that it is only 14 months to the Olympics in Vancouver and likely he would want nothing more than to end his international career by participating in what has the potential to be the greatest hockey tournament ever played; a best-on-best Olympics with all players available in the motherland of hockey.

Here are ten reasons why Mats Johan Sundin from the Stockholm suburb of Sollentuna should sign with… pom, pom, pom, pom… Les Canadiens de Montréal, professional hockey’s most storied franchise with 24 Stanley Cup titles, a revitalized club in the middle of its 100th season.

10. Follow the Frank Mahovlich trail. People say: “Players can’t go from Toronto to Montreal.”  But of course he can. Frank Mahovlich was a Leaf through and through, but just as often was the case with Sundin, the “Big M” was never fully accepted and frequently questioned in Toronto. When Mahovlich arrived in Montreal in 1970 at age 32, he played the best hockey of his career and led the Canadiens to two Stanley Cups. Other ex-Leafs who left Toronto for Montreal and revived their careers or/and went on to win Stanley Cups were Gary Leeman, Russ Courtnall, and Dick Duff.

9. Every hockey player wants to play in Montreal. Those who don’t admit it are lying. Why wouldn’t you want to perform in front of 21,273 fans in EVERY home game in what is the world’s biggest and noisiest hockey arena, the Bell Centre? Sundin would love the atmosphere and he would thrive under the pressure that comes with it.

8. Wearing the C & H. He would be able to say this to his children someday: “Look Tobias and Stina, this is the jersey daddy wore at the end of his career. It’s the most beautiful and sacred of all hockey jerseys. It’s really a piece of art, and it’s called ‘Le Saint Flanelle’. A cool guy named The Rocket wore it 50 years ago.”

7. Finally, he’d team up with Koivu, not against. There are probably no two international hockey stars in history who have faced-off so many times against each other as Koivu and Sundin; Habs vs. Leafs for 15 years, Sweden vs. Finland on the international stage since the mid-1990s. Sundin would love to play with Koivu and vice versa (and it doesn’t matter that both are centres). Finally, Sundin owes Koivu a favour. It was Sundin who accidentally broke Koivu’s stick in the opening faceoff of the third period of the Olympic Gold Medal game in Turin, an event which led to Sweden’s winning goal ten seconds later.

6. The perfect fit on Habs’ struggling power-play. Coach Guy Carbonneau would put Sundin on the point, beside Andrei Markov. With Sundin’s passing and booming shot, the PP unit (choose between Koivu, Alex Kovalev, Alex Tanguay, Andrei Kostitsyn, Chris Higgins and Robert Lang up front) would score at will, just like Montreal’s famous Doug Harvey-led PP units from the mid and late 1950s.

5. “Bilingual? I am bilingual!” His impressive stature (193cm, 100kg/6’4”, 231 lbs) and his integrity would make Sundin a very tough target for any representatives of the French-Canadian media in Montreal who – probably in the midst of a scoring drought or winless streak – would want to make an issue out of Sundin’s not being able to speak French. Sundin would probably reply: “Why? I am perfectly bilingual – in English and Swedish.”

4. The only C on his sweater would be the C & H. As if playing in Toronto was not pressure enough, Sundin also wore the captain’s C for a decade and he had always to be available to comment to media on everything. He handled it with class, but he never really enjoyed that part of the game. In the Canadiens’ dressing room he would simply say: “See this Finnish kid over there by locker number 11? Talk to him.” Captain K (as in Koivu) has been the club’s spiritual leader and the players’ spokesman since 1999.

3. Getting ready for Vancouver in Brossard. The Vancouver Olympics, that is. The Canadians just opened their new training facility in the suburb of Brossard, a stunning sports complex with all the latest in physiotherapy and state-of-the art medical areas. For a player who is 38, this is extremely important. The superior care and treatment Sundin would be able to enjoy with the Canadiens would prolong his career by another two seasons, making him ready to take on Olympic competition in perfect physical condition.   

2. Going for the Triple Gold Club. Sundin has won Olympic gold and three World Championship titles, but he has never won the Stanley Cup. The Canadiens are a contender without Sundin, but they would be even better with him. General manager Bob Gainey has done an excellent job in transforming the franchise from a loser to a winner. They have good players in Montreal, and there are many prospects in affiliate Hamilton. Gainey’s smart management has left some space under the salary cap which means that the GM can afford to make additional moves. Coach Carbonneau’s game plan resembles the defensive approach of Sweden’s national team coach Bengt-Åke Gustafsson, and Sundin is always good with Tre Kronor. Mats, if it’s the Stanley Cup you want, this is your team. (Note: The Triple Gold Club has 22 members to date. Sundin is slated for membership card No. 23).

1. The best smoked meat in the world. If you can’t win the Stanley Cup, the second-closest thing to heaven is smoked meat at Schwartz’s Delicatessen at 3895 St. Laurent Boulevard. It’s a ten-dollar cab drive from the Bell Centre, but for Mats the cabbie wouldn’t even charge. Tourists, actors, comedians, journalists, politicians, sports people, filmmakers visit this smoked meat place of pilgrimage. You order a plate of medium fat, half-sour pickle, cole slaw, home-made fries, and a cherry soda, and the experience is as close you can get to a Stanley Cup winning goal in overtime. As opposed to chasing hockey’s holy grail, delivery and satisfaction at Schwartz’s is guaranteed.

SZYMON SZEMBERG

PS. There is a problem, though. Alex Tanguay chose jersey number 13 when he signed with Montreal last summer. But if there is a will, there is a way.