The voice at the end of the phone line cackles when it’s mentioned that Maple Leafs’ training camp opens Friday.

“Can’t make it, buddy,” laughs Mats Sundin, the relief in his voice obvious from an ocean away.

Sundin who could never lead the Leafs out of the woods is heading into them instead. He’s off on a moose-hunting trip in the Swedish wilderness while his former club sweats it out preparing for the grind of another NHL season.

No longer a Leaf, these days Sundin contents himself amidst the leaves, either helping to save animals or, in this case, hoping to bag one.

While the moose hunt is an autumn tradition in rural Sweden, the conservationist role is one Sundin takes seriously, much to the surprise of Alberta bear researchers who were joined by the former Leafs captain while they studied grizzlies in the mountains northwest of Stockholm earlier this year.

It was there that Sundin appeared, unannounced, in a longshoremen’s black toque, grey scarf and work boots, spending a day helping the scientists tranquilize and capture about a dozen bears, take measurements of the animals and fit them with tracking collars.

The arrival of the former NHL star shouldn’t have been such a shocker. Sundin put up his own money so Swedish scientists could purchase the home base for a bear research centre about five hours outside the Swedish capital, where Sundin lives.

When he heard Canadians had arrived to learn more about how his country had bolstered its population of grizzlies — called Scandinavian brown bears there — Sundin and his father went on a field trip to lend a hand.

“He was right in there working alongside me and the other people on the team,” said program lead Gord Stenhouse of the Foothills Research Institute in Hinton, Alta.

“He was helping in all aspects of lifting bears, weighing bears and moving bears around, taking measurements and stuff. He showed up ready for work, not in a jacket and tie.”

Sundin said he became involved helping bears through his friend and former NHLer, Ulf Dahlen, whose neighbour flies helicopters for Swedish bear researchers.

Sundin flew to the site a few years ago, helped tag about 80 bears and was enthralled with the work. Nearly extinct at one point, Sweden’s brown bear population has grown from about 130 in the 1930s to more than 3,300 today.

“I’m not going to say I’m involved on a daily basis, but I’m up there a couple of times a year,” said the 39-year-old Sundin, who retired in 2009 after a half-season final tour with the Canucks. “The more you find out, the more interesting it is.”

He offers as an example a project currently underway at one of the Swedish hospitals where researchers are studying bears during hibernation.

“They’re trying to find things in their blood to learn why their muscles don’t disappear (during the winter),” he says.

“A human being who lays down for two days is going to start losing muscle mass, but (bears) can lay for six or seven months, just lose a little bit of weight and then come out, walking and running right away.”

Alberta’s grizzly population has declined to about 700, small enough to be declared a threatened species by the provincial government. Stenhouse is hoping the cooperative research between Canada and Sweden will help preserve the animal on both continents.

And it doesn’t hurt that the bears’ plight is getting a higher profile because of a former hockey player who was a huge star in both countries.

“I’m hoping there are other hockey players in Canada who have the same kind of interest and (Sundin’s work) might inspire them to become involved in these kinds of activities,” said Stenhouse.

As for the moose hunt, this will be Sundin’s first. He put off a visit to Toronto to go with his extended family on the week-long adventure, which he says is an annual fall tradition in smaller towns. In the past, he was typically preoccupied at this time of year.

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Speaking of hockey, surely after 18 seasons he must miss the annual hunt for a Stanley Cup.

“Not at all,” he said. “Sometimes, you wake up and think you’re going to practice and when you realize you don’t have to, it’s really nice. I think in my case it was just time, both mentally and physically. I had my share of hockey at the elite level. I’m not complaining, but eventually it wears you down playing at that level. It’s also really nice to be able to decide how to fill your time.”

These days that means helping the bears instead of facing the Bruins.

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