They relived the tough early times when they were criticized for being too slow and soft, the high-flying glory days, the crushing defeats, and the last three seasons that have seen the Canucks lose more combined games than any other team in the league.
“It’s always tough losing,” said Daniel Sedin, who along with his brother will play just three more N.H.L. games. “But with the team we had, you have to stay positive, you have to keep playing the right way, and trying to teach the young guys.”
Heading into the final year of their contracts, the Sedins penned an open letter in the fall stating their desire to remain with the only franchise they have ever known — even if it meant forgoing the chance at a Stanley Cup elsewhere.
“We know we had the best jobs in the world,” Henrik Sedin said Monday. “We tried to treat it that way.”
The twins said in their letter Monday that they originally wanted to wait until after this season to make a decision, but they decided the time was right to make the call.
Selected second and third overall at the 1999 draft after the Canucks made a series of trades to grab both brothers, the Sedins have been the faces of the franchise for more than a decade. But it wasn’t initially a smooth transition from Sweden to North America.
“There’s lot of people that believed in us early on that were part of this organization,” Henrik Sedin said. “If they would have listened to a lot of voices out of this room, it would have been easy to trade us because we didn’t live up to the hype.”
The Sedins, probable Hall of Famers, would eventually do so to become one of the most fearsome duos in the league, with what sometimes seemed like a telepathic ability to find each other with passes.
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Daniel Sedin, left, and Henrik Sedin have each accumulated more than 1,000 points in 17 seasons with Vancouver. Credit Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press, via Associated Press
“We’ll miss them as people and as players,” said Canucks president of hockey operations Trevor Linden, who played six seasons with the Sedins. “Happy for them because I know this is a decision they’ve come to for the right reasons.”
Henrik Sedin has 1,068 points (240 goals, 828 assists) in 1,327 regular-season games, while Daniel Sedin has 1,038 points (391 goals, 647 assists) in 1,303 outings.
Henrik added 23 goals and 55 assists in 105 playoff games, with Daniel adding 25 goals and 46 assists in 102 games.
Henrik won the Art Ross Trophy as the league’s top scorer in 2009-10 with 112 points. He also won the Hart Trophy as league most valuable player that year.
Daniel won the Art Ross in 2010-11 with 104 points. He also won the Ted Lindsay Award as the league M.V.P. voted on by the players.
“When they dropped the puck, we wanted to be on the ice,” Henrik Sedin said. “We wanted to be the go-to guys.”
The Sedins plan to stay in Vancouver for the time being and are looking forward to spending more time with family.
“Going on the road, leaving the kids home, family, that’s been the toughest part,” Daniel Sedin said. “It will be fun to be around them a lot more.”
The core of the team that got so close to a Stanley Cup title in 2011 has been slowly stripped away, with the Sedins among the only players left.
With young players like Brock Boeser and Bo Horvat at the front of a new wave under the leadership of the rookie coach Travis Green, the Sedins said they feel they’re leaving the franchise in good hands.
The Canucks also now have some holes to fill. Daniel Sedin has 21 goals and 31 assists in 78 games this season, while Henrik Sedin has three goals and 45 assists in 79 outings — a combined 100 points Vancouver will have to replace.
“It’s the right time for us to leave,” Henrik Sedin said. “We’ve been part of a coaching staff and a group that we really enjoyed working with.”
The Canucks host the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday before the Sedins’ final home game Thursday against the Arizona Coyotes. The twins will then wrap up their careers Saturday at Edmonton.
“It’s a chance for us to thank the fans,” Daniel Sedin said. “We told our teammates this morning they should be regular games. Treat us the same way.
“It should be no different this last week.”
An earlier version of this article misstated the number of seasons the Sedins played for the Canucks. It is 17, not 18. The error was repeated in a capsule summary and a picture caption.
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