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Toronto Maple Leafs center Mats Sundin is seriously contemplating retirement, the Toronto Sun reports.
Friday's "soft deadline" for Sundin to announce his plans passed without any real resolution as many hockey insiders believe Sundin is leaning toward walking away.
Sundin, 37, is an unrestricted free agent. He has a two-year, $20 million contract offer from the Vancouver Canucks, and as many as six teams are lined up as suitors. All of them now are on hold.
"He's just trying to decide if he's going to play or not. On the face of it, that's the issue," agent J.P. Barry told the Star after speaking with the Leafs' long-time captain Thursday. "The longer that takes I guess ... increases the possibility of him not playing."
Observers in Sweden tell the newspaper that this is the time of year when Sundin usually organizes informal summer skates among other Swedish NHL players. This summer he has not been working out.
Sundin spent the past 13 years as Maple Leafs captain. He turned down Leafs' requests to waive his no-trade clause at last season's trade deadline.
Barry says Sundin wants to make sure he is "100 percent certain he wants to play." He also doubts Sundin has any sort of time frame in mind and that Aug. 1 was a media creation, not something Sundin set.
Sundin, Barry told the Vancouver Sun, "is extremely flattered by the interest, and the ongoing interest in Vancouver and Montreal in particular, but the key is making that personal decision on playing."
The biggest problem in Sundin's procrastination -- the word "dithering" is getting big play in NHL media circles -- is that teams wanting Sundin can't commit to cap money.
Writing for the Vancouver Sun, Elliott Pap used the Canucks as an example:
Canucks GM Mike Gillis is clutching $10 million in cap dollars to his bosom, hoping he'll be the lucky one [to land Sundin]. If he isn't, he'll have to start scouring the market for a top-six forward.
Gillis claimed Thursday he was not frustrated by Sundin's dithering.
"I guess if we keep it all in perspective, there hasn't been any real hockey trades to my knowledge since July 1 and I don't think there will be until teams go through the arbitration process and have a clear understanding of what their financial obligations are," Gillis said. "I knew there would be a grace period where not a whole lot would happen in the NHL and we're in the middle of that period.
"I think when things begin to happen and, if we don't have a clear idea of where we're headed [on Sundin] at that point, I think maybe we'll get a little more frustrated."
Teams are allowed to exceed the $56.7 million cap by 10 percent until October. As of this week, Anaheim, Chicago, Calgary, Philadelphia and Washington were above the threshold.
That could produce the next spit of player movement. Teams will be forced to follow the lead of the Boston Bruins and Minnesota Wild in axing players from their roster, possibly including high-priced veterans. The Bruins shed salary with their Glen Murray buyout. The Wild did the same with Mark Parrish.
Meanwhile, Gillis told the Vancouver Province he has contingency plans but won't go into crisis mode if Sundin drops out of the picture.
"I'm comfortable going into the season with the team we have now," Gillis said. "I think there are a couple of younger players that we really believe are going to step up and fill holes and be good players.
Ryan Callahan scored three goals as the New York Rangers beat Philadelphia 5-2 on Saturday for their seventh straight win over the Flyers.
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Jeremy Lin hit a free throw with 4.9 seconds left to overcome a dreadful second half and lift the New York Knicks to their fifth straight victory, 100-98, over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday night.
Doron Lamb hit a 3-pointer with 3:18 left to put No. 1 Kentucky ahead to stay, and the Wildcats took a big step toward a Southeastern Conference regular-season title by beating Vanderbilt 69-63 Saturday night for their 17th straight win.
Wesseling: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for AFC teams.
