Flashback - Mats Sundin

There are a number of utterly strange things on this clip. First of all, check out the drama with which Pierre Gauthier selects Sundin first overall. You never really see that anymore. It's an Oscar worthy performance which he would repeat almost ten years later as GM of the Ottawa Senators when he told the press that he wasn't going to Anaheim.




Then a very young Paul Romanuk from TSN blocks Sundin on his way to the podium for an interview that nowadays only takes place after the pick has put on the sweater and posed for the photos.

On top of that, Sundin has a nice full head of hair instead of the Mark Messier style he now sports and can barely speak a word of English.

If you had told anyone in 1989 (still the Harold Ballard years) that Sundin would go on to captain the Toronto Maple Leafs and become one of their most beloved players in history, they would have killed themselves rolling down the stairs in laughter.

Then Sundin tries to put on the team cap and he can't get it to fit so he lets it sit there, in essence making him look like a Kentucky truck driver.

Gotta love those Nordiques uniforms though.