Finally! The Drama Is Over, Mats Sundin Signs With Vancouver

Finally, finally it has happened. Finally the talk on where Sundin will end. As of yesterday Mats Sundin signed a one year deal with the Vancouver Canucks worth 10.2 million which by prorotated equals to 5.6 million against the cap.

Is it any surprise that Sundin went for the money? His chances of at least reaching the Cup finals were much more realistic with the Rangers or Canadiens than with the Canucks. The problem with that, neither had the cap space to sign him.

Being in the super deep western conference rather than the less talented eastern conference, the Canucks will have a tough time getting past the first and second round. Even with Sundin in the line up along with the Sedin twins, and Demitra, the only way the Canucks will get to the Stanley Cup finals is if Luongo plays as if he was Patrick Roy in net. No knock on Lunogo who is a good goaltender and can steal games but he is no way by any standards Patrick Roy in playing ability.

In an interview on espn.com conducted by Pierre LeBrun, he insisted it wasn't about money but more of a decision of not wanting to disrupt the locker room. In either New York, Montreal, Chicago, or Philadelphia , all who wanted the center, only the Canucks had the cap space to do so with out moving anybody.

The Canucks had a hole in their roster down the middle and the money. But in any sense he's disrupting a locker room coming into the season almost at the half way point. Players who have been there since September will be losing minutes to Sundin. Sundin will be playing anywhere from 17-20 minutes a night, those minutes are obviously coming from other players.

The problem with this could most likely start a trend that was inadvertently started last year by Teemu Selanne, Scott Niedermayer, and Peter Forsberg (although Forsberg always wanted to play but couldn't due to injury). Veteran players who are at the end of their ropes, could hold out until the middle of the season when its a little more clear on which teams are playoff teams.

A speculation to this could be made that Sundin wanted to wait to see how good Vancouver is compared to last year, as they didn't want to make the playoffs. This year they're still holding onto the North West division seed and have done so for a month without Lunogo. Now that they're a playoff team and not a bubble team, he decided to sign with them.

That's just speculation, along with it's odd that Sundin was awarded the Mark Messier award, when he didn't waive his no trade clause from Toronto for a hefty package that no doubt would've sped up their rebuilding phase. His reasoning being he didn't want to desert his team, also he didn't want to join a team in the middle of the season to contend for a cup. He wanted to be with a team from the start of camp all the way to the finals.

Instead he leaves Toronto, leaving them nothing in return for the thirteen years he wore their sweater and was their hopes of a cup, at least he could've left them with some nice prospects, draft picks, and maybe a NHL ready player. He signs on with a team in December, not September at the start of training camp but in December. He is a hypocrite. He went against every reason why he didn't want to leave Toronto last year.

Sundin is a selfish player and he does not deserve to raise the Stanley Cup above his head.