Having read dozens of hockey player memoirs, they are rarely something that I get overly excited about. While I find both coaches and those in management often tend to put out more engaging reads, it’s the players who have the harder time producing an entertaining story. I don’t know if you’ve ever watched an interview with a player but it’s a lot of cliches and boiler-plate responses as they’re well-trained in dealing with the media. Their books tend to follow this trend and can sometimes read like a game-summary about stats, wins and losses, so they feel sort of soulless. You get the odd breakthrough book like Willie O’Ree’s memoir or Ken Dryden’s masterpiece “The Game”, but most fall in the realm of average-at-best.

When I heard one of my all-time favourites in Mats Sundin was going to finally tell his story, that definitely captured my attention. When he tapped best-selling fiction author Amy Stewart to assist him, I was even more interested. What ended up shaking out in the end was a more or less average memoir, but full of heart and love for a team that I have spent the majority of my life cheering for.

I lived through his time in Toronto, so it didn’t feel like a whole lot there that was revelatory. The true strength of this book lies in Sundin’s upbringing and his development as a player in Sweden. He came of age and was drafted to the NHL just after the Iron Curtain had fallen in Europe, so his stories about playing with talented, young Russians who ended up defecting to North America were fascinating. The fact that he was a first overall draft pick and stayed behind in Sweden for two years to play with his home club while also having a part-time job is something that would never happen in today’s NHL. A by-gone era for sure.

As a life-long die-hard Maple Leafs fan, I will always appreciate when someone desperately wants to play for the team. Mats’ passion for the hockey club is so clearly visible all throughout this book and you really feel his disappointment in not being able to bring a championship to the fans of Toronto. He wanted it more than anything. At this point, it feels like it would take nothing short of a miracle to see a parade down Bay Street in June, but you can’t blame Mats given just how hard he tried to make that happen.