Maybe Mats Sundin just doesn't want to feel like a tramp.
Maybe lifting the Stanley Cup after three months in another jersey would feel as cheap as sacking up with the entire offensive line of the school football team.
So perhaps it's time for every hockey fan with internet access to calm down and just appreciate the decision, whatever it turns out to be.
No one really knows what came out of the much-anticipated meeting between Cliff Fletcher and Sundin down in Carolina Wednesday and, by the sounds of it, things are going to stay that way.
The drama, of course, is warranted.
Fans of other teams are waiting for a potential addition that may give the trophy engraver a head start on the Stanley Cup. Leaf fans are hoping to get the inside track on the pending overhaul.
If Sundin has waived his clause, it won't be long until 29 other general managers know it.
If he hasn't, everyone else will know on the afternoon of Feb. 26th.
The notion that Mats Sundin actually owes something to the Leafs is as intricate as it is ridiculous. Despite being loyal to the organization, perhaps to a fault, the short-sighted insist Sundin is obligated to take one for the team.
Could you imagine fans in Detroit treating Steve Yzerman that way in the waning years of his career?
Mind you, Sundin is from Sweden, not Swift Current, and hasn't won a Stanley Cup, which, of course, can be grounds for a whole new set of rules. Imagine the audacity of a hockey player to not have been born in Canada.
It's amazing how loyalty can, by some, be so scorned.
It goes without saying that the Leafs would benefit greatly by a Sundin move. But, last I checked, he has a no-trade clause and the right to invoke it.
He didn't make this mess, and he sure as hell doesn't have to clean it up.
Considering the season he is enjoying, Sundin may opt to come back next season, probably to Toronto, for another go.
My own personal hunch is he will finish out the season in a Leaf jersey and call it career before heading home to Sweden. There's nothing left to prove.
Only time will tell.
Either way, Leaf fans should embrace either decision.
Whatever happens between now and late February really doesn't matter. The story of one of the greatest Leafs ever and a clear-cut Hall of Famer is coming to an end.
However it plays out, Sundin has earned the right to write the final chapter.