He had like 2 seasons in top 10 points, zero awards.
A bit like Buffet once said 'Our investments are simply not aware that it takes 365-1/4 days for the earth to make it around the sun.' about some people focus on yearly result I think this is loosing the forest for the trees in Sundin case, if you look at Top 10 of someone with so many near Top 10 miss, look the couple of last years how hard it is to make a Top 20 in the modern 30+ teams league.
If we had the habbit to look at Top 10 points of combined season instead of single season, say what did you do in a group of 3, 5, 7 seasons, etc.., Sundin look really good. And one can ask yourself, doing so do we remove noise and make it a group more elite or not ? I think the bar is high enough to not be about compiling but sustained excellence. It does put a lot of value into playing 70 or more games every year, but that not a bad thing by itself, in a era of the league were making the playoff is hard.
If we look at group of 5 seasons, say like this, to keep short and keep the Naslund peak in here to not favor Sundin longevity/consistency too much, but still capturing it:
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Who in the league made the most Top 10 over 5 seasons (letting them overlap) *the code for this was not robust against lockout year or any complexity.
| FullName | TopCount | avgFinish | Best Finish |
| Gordie Howe | 21 | 2.3 | 1 |
| Wayne Gretzky | 16 | 2.3 | 1 |
| Jean Beliveau | 15 | 4.8 | 1 |
| Joe Sakic | 14 | 5.2 | 2 |
| Jaromir Jagr | 13 | 1.8 | 1 |
| Marcel Dionne | 13 | 3.9 | 1 |
| Alex Delvecchio | 13 | 7.6 | 5 |
| Stan Mikita | 12 | 3.5 | 1 |
| Bobby Hull | 12 | 3.6 | 2 |
| Sidney Crosby | 12 | 4.3 | 1 |
| Ted Lindsay | 12 | 4.3 | 2 |
| Norm Ullman | 12 | 6.5 | 4 |
| Phil Esposito | 11 | 2.0 | 1 |
| Maurice Richard | 11 | 2.6 | 1 |
| Mario Lemieux | 11 | 2.7 | 1 |
| Alex Ovechkin | 11 | 3.2 | 1 |
| Joe Thornton | 11 | 3.9 | 1 |
| Bernie Geoffrion | 11 | 6.0 | 4 |
| Andy Bathgate | 10 | 3.2 | 1 |
| Steve Yzerman | 10 | 5.8 | 3 |
| Johnny Bucyk | 10 | 6.8 | 3 |
| Patrick Kane | 9 | 4.1 | 2 |
| Jean Ratelle | 9 | 5.4 | 3 |
| Frank Mahovlich | 9 | 6.6 | 5 |
| Guy Lafleur | 8 | 3.3 | 1 |
| Martin St. Louis | 8 | 4.6 | 1 |
| Adam Oates | 8 | 4.9 | 2 |
| Henri Richard | 8 | 7.1 | 5 |
| Jarome Iginla | 8 | 7.5 | 5 |
| Bobby Clarke | 7 | 3.9 | 2 |
| Jari Kurri | 7 | 4.1 | 2 |
| Teemu Selanne | 7 | 4.7 | 2 |
| Peter Forsberg | 7 | 5.4 | 3 |
| Darryl Sittler | 7 | 5.6 | 4 |
| Dale Hawerchuk | 7 | 5.9 | 3 |
| Gilbert Perreault | 7 | 6.1 | 4 |
| Mats Sundin | 7 | 7.0 | 4 |
| Mike Bossy | 6 | 2.3 | 2 |
| Bobby Orr | 6 | 2.5 | 2 |
| Bryan Trottier | 6 | 3.7 | 2 |
| Henrik Sedin | 6 | 4.3 | 2 |
| Dickie Moore | 6 | 5.0 | 4 |
| Claude Giroux | 6 | 5.5 | 1 |
| Peter Stastny | 6 | 5.7 | 3 |
| Ted Kennedy | 6 | 5.8 | 4 |
| Denis Savard | 6 | 5.8 | 4 |
| Elmer Lach | 6 | 6.7 | 2 |
| Bert Olmstead | 6 | 7.2 | 5 |
| Pierre Turgeon | 6 | 7.2 | 4 |
| Bernie Federko | 6 | 7.7 | 6 |
| Mark Recchi | 6 | 7.8 | 4 |
| Rod Gilbert | 6 | 8.2 | 6 |
| Michel Goulet | 6 | 8.7 | 6 |
The only name that show up in continue excellence not in the Hall his Turgeon I think, which should end up in one day and a controversial one to be left out, and Turgeon with half of Sundin International resume for team Canada would have been in the first year of eligibility, complete non brainer.
And it is not like Sundin is weak at hockey outside accumulating point or was not a line driver and able to do it in any team circumstance at any stage and he did it in a 30 teams league for the most part, enjoyed maybe not the best era of top healthy forward at some points but also missed a Top 10 by a spot when he scored 114pts at some other point.
First column, is their number of top 10, second column is their average, say someone did a Top 2-7-8 the average will be 17/3, the lower the better, last column is their best Top 10 result, lower the better.
Add, looking like one if not the best player in the world on the biggest stages and being the Swedish captain for a decade over Forsberg-Lidstrom:
How can you tell the story of hockey (international and nhl) from Sundin being the first euro 1st overall in 89 to his hyped cup chasing days pre-retirement and exclude him for either the Hockey Hall of Fame or the IIHF, he is not even a borderline pick imo, we are talking about someone that did not felt specially weird to get in the first year of eligibility or to get a statue in Toronto.
