Daniel Sedin (left) and Henrik Sedin (right) are both making huge strides with the Canucks this season...
FleetCenter; Boston, MA; June 26th, 1999
The Vancouver Canucks were a failing team, desperate for some young talent.
And on June 26th, 1999 they were ready to make a move.
After a season which saw them accumulate 47 losses and a mere 58 points, they were determined to gain a little more respect.
Just a little respect.
On this date in 1999, they changed the look of their prospect repertoire, certain Swedes by the name of Daniel Sedin and Henrik Sedin whom were both 2nd and 3rd overall picks respectively.
But who were these kids some asked? "The twin brothers from MoDo in Sweden."
Scouts were impressed with the twins' offensive ability in Sweden, however they did not put up huge numbers: Henrik had 47 points in 50 games before being drafted and Daniel was slightly worse with 45 points in 50 games. While fans drooled over the possibility of another Sutter. But most importantly, experts proudly promoted that this had better have been carefully chosen pair of draft choices, as the Canucks were floundering and had just dissapointed big-time with 47 losses, they needed some kind of consolation for that.
The Canucks drafted potentially high-impact players, but more interestingly, they had taken two brothers with two consecutive picks.
Their careers started off a little slow for highly-picked draftees but nevertheless, expectations were still high for the dynamic duo.
However, things began to go bleak when the pair failed to reach 55 points in their first four NHL seasons after being taken very high in the draft.
The highest they ever got to were back in 2003-2004, the last pre-lockout season, the last "Old-NHL" season when Daniel broke the bank and recorded 54 points while Henrik presented only a slight improvement over the previous seasons with 42 points.
"What's going on? Why aren't they the superstars they should be? Did we screw up by choosing 50 point players 2nd and 3rd overall?"
I have to admit, I was kind of reluctant to accept that they would ever accomplish the goals fans around the nation expected of them.
It wasn't a particularly talent-filled draft choice pool that year, with Patrick Stefan going 1st overall to the new Atlanta Thrashers and many other nobodies taken further on.
The most notable pick of the draft was probably the Senators' selection of Martin Havlat 26th overall in the 1st round, the rest either did not accomplish what had been planned for them or simply were flops.
The biggest flop being Patrick Stefan, now with the Dallas Stars, who was probably the worst first overall pick ever.
Wait!
The new NHL proved to be a career-saving, career-ending or career-changing experience for many players.
In the career-saving: Jaromir Jagr...Cristobal Huet...Martin Straka...Mats Sundin... just to name a few, turned their careers around after going downhill for a few years.
But then there was the career-changing which saw Daniel Sedin and Henrik Sedin turn the heat up and finally post star numbers with 71 and 75 points each. Henrik's proved to be a playmaker more than a scorer, with 57 assists last season and currently 57, they have proved to make up the majority of his point totals. Daniel has emerged into a scorer who finishes the plays up with the help of his linemate brother, netting 22 goals last season and currently 31.
And the great duo just proved they are what the Canucks drafted them to be: talented players, and that's what you get from Daniel and Henrik Sedin.
And what has people talking these days is also their clutch performances, last week, Henrik scored the game-winning goal against the Sharks about a minute into the game a week ago and yesterday, Daniel scored the winner in a similar time span against the Blues. They each had 1 goal and 1 assist in a 3-2 overtime win against the falling Blues.
Scoring...playmaking...energy...clutch...what more can they give? Time will only tell and blossom the pair into great and offensive leading players.
Oh, and they're both making the same amount of money each year too, funny indeed, one isn't beating out the other, at least not yet...
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