Mats Sundin has been officially recognized as one the Toronto Maple Leafs' greatest players.

Sundin’s No. 13 joined 17 other Maple Leafs greats in the Air Canada Centre rafters, as the organization honoured his number during a pre-game ceremony Saturday night.

Accompanied by his parents and wife, Josephine, the former Leafs captain had his number raised alongside other Leafs icons such as Johnny Bower, Darryl Sittler, and former teammates Doug Gilmour and Wendel Clark.

His No. 13 now sits beside the digits of another famous Swedish Maple Leaf — Borje Salming’s No. 21.

During his speech Saturday, Sundin recalled getting a bit of advice from Salming after being traded to Toronto back at the 1994 entry draft.

“(Borje) said 'Mats, you’ll love moving to Toronto; you’ll love being a Maple Leaf,’ said Sundin. “It’s the great tradition and great history of the Toronto Maple Leafs that I’m now part of.”

Interrupted by chants of “Sun-din! Sun-din!”, a periodically choked up Sundin thanked ownership, management, teammates, family, friends, and of course the fans.

“I miss driving to the ACC with a little knot building up in my stomach before the game,” Sundin said. “But the No. 1 thing I miss being retired and not being in Toronto are the people. There are no fans more loyal, passionate and committed than Leafs fans. Thanks for all your support over the years.”

Sundin is the Leafs all-time leading goal scorer with 420 and point-getter with 987 points in 981 games. And despite never winning the coveted Stanley Cup he hoped to bring to Toronto, he made it clear he had no regrets about his 13 seasons in the blue and white.

“I wouldn’t trade my years with the Leafs for anything,” Sundin said.

All the current Leafs wore Sundin’s No. 13 during the warmup and had patches of his number on their game jerseys.

“Support them, cheer them on,” Sundin told the crowd of their current club. “Give that extra energy they need to win.”