Home and Away

NHL Hall of Famer Sundin mostly sticks to his life on the ice in his paint-by-numbers debut memoir. Sundin, the son of a former hockey goaltender, was born in Sweden in 1971, and he developed a competitive streak early on: “to me, there was no... setting where having fun was more important than winning.” After playing for school teams, an 18-year-old Sundin became the first European player to be the top pick in the NHL draft; he started his career with the Quebec Nordiques (now the Colorado Avalanche) before being traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1994. For the most part, Sundin skates across the surface of his life’s milestones, including winning a gold medal with the Swedish national hockey team, his 2009 marriage, and his retirement from the NHL in the 2010s, when he returned to Sweden to start a family. The author’s tender admission that he looks forward to becoming “the parent in the stands, the equipment manager, the support person,” for his children is about as close as he comes to true vulnerability. Still, hockey diehards will appreciate Sundin’s insights into how he honed his craft. (Oct.)