A former Toronto Maple Leafs captain doesn’t mind that the newest captain will soon overtake him on the team’s all-time leaderboard for goals.

Mats Sundin, who is in town to begin a book tour for his upcoming biography, “Home and Away,” was invited to take in a preseason practice alongside fellow former captain Wendel Clark and GM Brad Treliving. When he spoke with The Toronto Sun’s Lance Hornby, Sundin was asked about the possibility of Auston Matthews soon surpassing him as the Leafs’ franchise leader in goals.

Although his lead is down to 52 goals, Sundin doesn’t mind that his time atop the leaderboard will soon end.

“If he keeps up this pace, it will be over pretty quick,” Sundin said to Hornby. “Great to see, there’s so much talent here.”

The Hall-of-Fame forward has always been a supporter of the Leafs’ core group of players which includes Matthews. Whenever he has been asked about this current era of the Leafs and their shortcomings, Sundin has been steadfast in his faith in the nucleus eventually getting it done and believing that they should not be broken up.

Sundin spoke with The Leafs Nation’s Arun Srinivasan in February when asked about the unique challenges of playing in the Toronto market and how he thinks the core is handling it.

“It’s always going to be pressure playing in Toronto,” Sundin said. “They’re young and they’re grown and every time they go into a playoff run, they’re going to learn.”

All of which is to say that Sundin will always support the core group no matter what, even if one of them is going to soon overtake his spot in the franchise history books. How can you not when Matthews has already broken so many records, captured numerous awards, and is one deep playoff run away from cementing his place as the greatest to ever don the Blue-and-White?

Entering this season, Matthews sits at 368 career goals which currently ranks third in franchise history in career goals. Matthews is three goals ahead of Dave Keon and needs 21 goals to reach Darryl Sittler in second place, which is certainly achievable this season — perhaps even before the calendar flips over to 2025.

With Matthews on the books for the next three seasons after this one, there is plenty of time for him to rewrite history and propel himself further up the leaderboard. When that does come to pass, you can bet on Sundin being one of the first to congratulate the new captain on becoming the Leafs’ all-time goal leader.