Ask any Canucks fan what they think of the Sedin’s, and you’re bound to get an answer. You might hear that they want too much money. You might hear that GM Mike Gillis is a cheap bastard. You might even hear that they’d make a good name for a website. Whatever you hear, just about everyone has an opinion on what the Canucks should do about their identical free agent problem.
It’s hard to believe that the Sedin’s were drafted #2 and #3 a decade ago in the awful 1999 NHL Draft. A DECADE! I still think of them as the young kids that Brian Burke coveted so much that he traded up to get 2 of the top three picks in the draft. I mean, it doesn’t seem like it was that long ago, does it? By the way—I loved Pearl Jam’s “Ten” when it came out. So whatever.
Pick a Sedin, any Sedin...
So here’s the deal: you have 2 guys on your team that have amazing chemistry, have played together their entire lives and are point per game players. They’re entering their respective primes—both should be looking towards career years and are asking for career money accordingly. The fact that they’re asking for tens of millions of dollars shouldn’t really surprise anyone.
When you start to break down the attributes they bring to the table versus the cost it would take to BRING those attributes to said table, this isn’t as difficult a decision as it might seem on the surface. So here we go… should the Sedin’s be resigned by the Canucks—Pros and Cons style!
Pro: Point per game players don’t grow on trees—they grow in Sweden. Going out and finding one is a lot easier said than done. And here, you get 2.
Con: $126 million dollars is a lot of money. At least you get 2 players for that price (reports state that they asking for $63 million each). Even the Yankees would have to think twice before signing those checks.
Pro: The Sedin’s are capable of playing in every situation. With their ability to cycle the puck in the opponent’s zone, they are able to kill time when protecting a lead. Both are skilled enough to play on the power play—and last year they were both near the top of the league in even strength scoring. They’re not just scorers, they’re HOCKEY PLAYERS.
Con: If $126 million is a lot of money, then 12 years is a long time to commit to any hockey player. Think about it—by the end of their careers that would be 20 seasons (21 years) with Henrik and Daniel. Are the Canucks willing to invest in that kind of long-term investment?
If they get hurt next year, then yes... we jinxed them.
Pro: They have only missed a COMBINED 24 games throughout their entire 8 NHL seasons. Are you kidding me? That’s as many as Jeremy Roenick missed by himself in ONE season in Los Angeles! And people wonder why King fans hate Roenick. In his defense, I think he only missed half of those games due to injury. The other half were missed because he didn’t like how his skates felt. My apologies for any assumptions that were made about Mr. Roenick’s heart. Clearly, it was equipment issues that caused him to miss 24 games—not silly things like being out of shape and simply collecting a paycheck.
Con: The salary cap has been reported to be $56.8 million for the 2009-10 season. There are inflation and growth factors going forward that get complicated, but let’s just use next year’s numbers for arguments sake. Say the Sedin’s get somewhere between the $5.33 and $5.5 per year that is being reported. If the actual contract falls somewhere in between those two numbers, you’re looking at 19% of your available money for salaries. If you were a GM, would you be comfortable spending that much on 2 players? Would you be comfortable spending that much on two #1 line stars? It’s all perspective.
Pro: They are a pre-fabricated, out of the box, batteries included, no assembly required opening night #1 line for almost any team that didn’t play in the Stanley Cup Finals last season. No matter which team they end up playing for, they aren’t just individual players; you’re basically buying an entire line. If Toronto is looking at making a splash, suddenly Lee Stempniak looks like a legitimate top line guy!
Con: Did I mention that it’s a lot of money for a long time? Yeah, that’s about all I got.
Pro: It makes the entire team better. Say you have a good #1 line and a decent 2nd line. If you bring in the Sedin twins, all the sudden that good #1 line is now a GREAT 2nd line. Likewise, the decent 2nd line becomes an impressive 3rd line. They provide support for the depth the organization already has in place.
There are a few more “Pros” that I could list, but it would just look stupid if I kept saying, “Con: They would make a lot of money.” Here are a few comparables so you get an idea of the type of player that makes between $5 – 5.5 million.
| Player | Cap Hit (in millions of dollars) |
| Rick Nash | 5.4 |
| Ryan Getzlaf | 5.33 |
| Corey Perry | 5.33 |
| Martin St. Louis | 5.25 |
| Simon Gagne | 5.25 |
| Alex Tanguay | 5.25 |
| Olli Jokinen | 5.25 |
| Brian Rolston | 5.06 |
| Marc Savard | 5.0 |
| Mike Ribeiro | 5.0 |
| Jeff Carter | 5.0 |
And just in case you want numerical evidence that these guys are pretty good, here are the career stats for both Henrik and Daniel. The order of the stats has nothing to do with alphabetical order—and everything to do with the fact that Daniel was drafted before Henrik. As we all know, that means Henrik sucks.
So what do you think? Do you think that a team like the Wild or Maple Leafs should sign the two Sedin twins to a long term contract? Or do you think that they aren’t worth the money/commitment and you’d rather your team went after someone else? Whatcha got?
