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The late 1990s through early 2010s saw perhaps the greatest generation of Swedish hockey talent in the country’s history – led by the likes of goalie Henrik Lundqvist, defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom, and forwards Peter Forsberg and the Sedin twins, this culminated in a hockey gold medal at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. That historic team was captained by Mats Sundin, with Daniel Alfredsson and Lidstrom serving as alternate captains; speaking to each player’s skill and leadership, Sundin and Alfredsson both spent the majority of their NHL careers playing in Canada and serving as longtime captains for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators, respectively. Given each player’s parallel success in the NHL and on the international stage, this leads to the question:
Who was better – Daniel Alfredsson or Mats Sundin?
The Beginning
Despite coming over to the NHL from Sweden with vastly different pedigrees and expectations, both Alfredsson and Sundin made an immediate impact as rookies.
After playing with Frolunda HC in the Swedish Elite League, Alfredsson was generally overlooked by NHL teams and drafted only 133rd overall in the sixth round of the 1994 NHL Entry Draft by the Ottawa Senators. Despite his lowly draft status, he burst onto the scene as a rookie in 1995-1996, putting up 26 goals and 35 assists for 61 points, though with a -18 +/- rating, to earn the Calder Trophy as the league’s top rookie.
Meanwhile, Sundin was playing for the Swedish second-tier team Nacka HK when he was selected first overall in the 1989 NHL Entry Draft by the then-Quebec Nordiques (now the Colorado Avalanche), thus becoming the first European-born player drafted #1 overall in NHL history. Following some time with Djurgardens IF in the Swedish Elite League, he made his NHL debut in 1990-1991, scoring 23 goals and 36 assists for 59 points with a -24 +/- rating to finish second on the Nordiques in scoring behind Joe Sakic and earn a seventh-place finish for the Calder Trophy.
Career Comparison
From their initial NHL success as rookies, Alfredsson and Sundin would both eventually grow to become not only team captains, but also the faces of their respective franchises and accumulate over 1,000 points each in their careers.
Following up on his Calder-winning rookie campaign, Alfredsson continued his strong play in 1996-1997 with 24 goals and 47 assists for 71 points with a +5 +/- rating. However, over the next three seasons, a contract dispute along with injuries limited him to fewer than 60 games played each season, with his highest scoring output only being 59 points (21 goals and 38 assists) in 1999-2000. Nevertheless, he assumed captaincy duties for the Senators in 1999 and would serve in that capacity for the rest of his tenure in Ottawa.
The next half-decade would be a return to success, as Alfredsson posted successively higher point totals each season – 70, 71, 78 and then, 80 points (32 goals and 48 assists) with a +12 +/- rating in 2003-2004 to also place second for the Lady Byng Trophy for “sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct combined with a high standard of playing ability”. With the lockout in 2004-2005, he would return home to play in his native Sweden, but returned to the NHL in 2005-2006 to have some of his best seasons playing on the so-called “CASH line” with center Jason Spezza and left winger Dany Heatley; in fact, Alfredsson had his best individual season in 2005-2006, putting up career-highs of 43 goals and 60 assists for 103 points (including a career-best game of four goals and six points vs. the Buffalo Sabres) with a +29 +/- rating to finish fourth for the Lady Byng, fifth for the Hart Trophy, and fourth for the Selke Trophy. In spite of persistent trade rumors, Alfredsson continued his strong play, amassing 87 points (29 goals and 58 assists) with a career-best +42 +/- rating in 2006-2007, followed by only his second career 40-goal season in 2006-2007 (40 goals and 49 assists for 89 points and a +34 +/- rating).
Entering his late 30s, Alfredsson remained a point-per-game producer; moreover, despite missing portions of the 2010-2011 season due to injury, he scored his 1,000th career point that season, again vs. the Sabres. Even as his scoring declined, he remained a valuable player, as evidenced by winning the King Clancy Memorial Trophy in 2011-2012, given annually to the player “who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and who has made a significant humanitarian contribution to his community”. Moreover, in his final season with the Senators in 2012-2013, while he only scored 26 points in 47 games, he did earn the Mark Messier Leadership Award. Following 17 seasons with the Senators, Alfredsson surprisingly signed as a free agent with the Detroit Red Wings and had a respectable 18 goals and 31 assists for 49 points with a +2 +/- rating in his lone season with the team in 2013-2014; a Senator at heart, though, he signed a one-day deal with Ottawa to retire at age 41 as the franchise record holder for career goals, assists, and points.
As for Sundin, he would play four seasons in Quebec and become a point-per-game producer, culminating in career-highs of 47 goals and 67 assists for 114 points and a +21 +/- rating in 1992-1993. However, during the 1994 NHL Entry Draft, he was traded with Garth Butcher, Todd Warriner, and a 1994 first-round pick (originally received as part of the Eric Lindros trade a few years earlier and used on Nolan Baumgartner) to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Wendel Clark, Sylvain Lefebvre, Landon Wilson, and a 1994 first-round pick (which was used to pick Jeff Kealty).
Due to the 1994-1995 lockout, Sundin first returned to Sweden to play for Djurgardens IF before making his Leafs debut – upon returning to the NHL that season, he led the team with 23 goals and 24 assists for 47 points in 47 games with a -5 +- rating. Over the course of his time in Toronto, he was a consistent point-per-game producer and the epitome of consistency – in a dozen full seasons, Sundin scored between 72 and 94 points each season; this included an improvement to 83 points (33 goals and 50 assists) in 1995-1996, followed by arguably his best individual season as a Leaf in 1996-1997: 41 goals and 53 assists for 94 points with a +6 +/- rating. In addition, after captain Doug Gilmour was traded to the New Jersey Devils that year, Sundin was named captain, the first European in the team’s history to don the “C”.
In 2001-2002, Sundin had his highest career Hart Trophy finish (eighth) on the strength of 41 goals and 39 assists for 80 points with a +6 +/- rating. The next year, despite another strong season with 72 points (37 goals and 35 assists) and becoming the first Swede to reach 1,000 career points, this would snap his streak of eight straight seasons as Toronto’s leading scorer (Alexander Mogilny had 79 points); overall, he led the Maple Leafs in scoring for 12 of his 13 seasons with the team. Unlike many of his countrymen, Sundin opted to sit out the season during the 2004-2005 lockout rather than play in the Swedish Elite League, but came back post-lockout with remarkably consistent seasons of 78, 76, and 78 points, respectively; highlights included reaching the 500 career goal mark in 2006-2007 (the 35th player in NHL history to reach the milestone, and thus far, the only Swede to do so) and winning the Mark Messier Leadership Award in 2007-2008. As a free agent, he signed with the Vancouver Canucks for the 2008-2009, but had the worst statistical season of his career (only 9 goals and 19 assists for 28 points with a -5 +/- rating) and retired at season’s end at age 37; he currently holds career records for most goals and points by a Swedish player, and Maple Leaf records for career goals, assists, and points.
While Alfredsson and Sundin both played 18 NHL seasons, Sundin has 100 additional games under his belt and accumulated more goals, assists, and points, though with a worse career +/- rating. Moreover, though both players put up 100+ points in a season once, Sundin has the edge in 30-goal seasons (13 to 4) and career point-per-game average (1.00 vs. 0.93). In terms of accolades and hardware, other than Alfredsson’s Calder Trophy, neither player won a major award, though Sundin did garner more All-Star Game selections (9 vs. 6). As one of the greatest Swedish-born players in league history, Sundin was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2015, and Alfreddson may one day follow in his countryman’s footsteps.
Regular Season Statistics
| Daniel Alfredsson | Player | Mats Sundin |
| 18 (1995-2014) | Seasons | 18 (1990-2009) |
| 1,246 | Games Played | 1,346 |
| 444 | Goals | 564 |
| 713 | Assists | 785 |
| 1,157 | Points | 1,349 |
| +155 | +/- | +73 |
| 6x | All-Star Games | 9x |
| – | Hart Trophies | – |
| – | Ross Trophies | – |
| – | Stanley Cups | – |
| – | Conn Smythes | – |
| ROY, 1x Clancy, 1x Messier | Other Awards | 1x Messier |
| – | Hall of Fame Induction | 2012 |
Source: Hockey-Reference.com
While Alfredsson and Sundin consistently led their respective teams into the playoffs year after year, neither was quite able to reach the summit of NHL team success, though Alfredsson did manage to play for the Stanley Cup during his career.
During his career, Alfredsson made 15 playoff appearances (14 with Ottawa and one with Detroit) with one trip to the Stanley Cup Finals. In 2006-2007, while with the Senators, he led the playoffs with 14 goals and 22 points to become the first European-born and raised captain to lead his team to the Finals; however, in the Senators’ first (and thus far, only) Finals, they lost to Teemu Selanne and the Anaheim Ducks in five games.
Meanwhile, in Sundin’s 10 postseason trips (eight of which came with the Maple Leafs), he would fall just short of the Stanley Cup Finals on numerous occasions. Of particular note, in 1998-1999, he helped guide Toronto to the Eastern Conference Finals with 8 goals and 8 assists for 16 points with a +2 +/- rating, but they would fall in five games to Dominik Hasek and the Sabres.
Together, the two Swedes achieved much greater success on the international stage. Alfredsson was a 5x Olympian, winning gold at the 2006 Games in Turin and silver at the 2014 Games in Sochi, Russia; additionally, he earned two silver and two bronze medals representing Sweden at the World Championships. Similarly, as captain of the Swedish team for nearly a decade, Sundin competed at three Olympics, including captaining the 2006 championship team, and also winning three golds, two silvers, and two bronzes at World Championships.
Playoff Statistics
| Daniel Alfredsson | Player | Mats Sundin |
| 124 | Games Played | 91 |
| 51 | Goals | 38 |
| 49 | Assists | 44 |
| 100 | Points | 82 |
| – | +/- | +2 |
Source: Hockey-Reference.com
Every athlete goes through a natural career lifecycle, from starting off as a rookie to reaching peak years of performance and finally, declining into the inevitable retirement due to a combination of age and/or injury; after long and outstanding careers with the Senators and Maple Leafs, respectively, both Alfredsson and Sundin spent their final NHL season in a different and unfamiliar uniform. For Hall of Fame caliber players across sports, I like to look at a concept I call a “decade of dominance.” The thinking behind this is that for most Hall of Fame type careers, there are roughly 10 great seasons that define an athlete (this idea is embodied in a sense by the NFL’s All-Decade teams), though due to injury or other factors, they might not be 10 consecutive years.
Decade of Dominance
| Daniel Alfredsson | Player | Mats Sundin |
| 1999-2004, 2005-2010 | Decade of Dominance | 1992-2002 |
| 731 | Games Played | 770 |
| 297 | Goals | 341 |
| 485 | Assists | 466 |
| 782 | Points | 807 |
| +153 | +/- | +87 |
Source: Hockey-Reference.com
Across decades of dominance, Sundin has more goals and total points than Alfredsson in slightly more games played; however, Alfredsson notched more assists, has a better +/- rating, and actually has a higher per-game scoring average (1.07 vs. 1.05).
My Thoughts
Among Sweden’s greatest hockey generation, many of the brightest stars spent most, if not all, of their NHL careers with one franchise, e.g. Lundqvist – Rangers, Lidstrom – Red Wings, Sedins – Canucks, etc. Alfredsson and Sundin were no different, serving as the longtime franchise faces and captains for the Senators and Maple Leafs, respectively, and cementing their legacies in each team’s history as one of their greatest players ever. Between the two, Alfredsson had more team success, both in the NHL and internationally, while Sundin was just a little bit better in most individual regards – he played a little longer, put up slightly better numbers (his scoring consistency with the Maple Leafs was amazing), and was generally viewed as the slightly better player, e.g. more All-Star nods.
Thus, after weighing their careers against each other in terms of statistics, achievements, and impact, the winner of this faceoff is:
Mats Sundin
As always, vote for your choice and leave your thoughts and comments below.
Further Reading
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