Daniel and Henrik Sedin are in the spotlight again this week thanks to
this story from Jason Brough at
ProHockeyTalk, citing an interview from Swedish paper
Expressen.
Predictably, the twins said they had no intention of finishing their careers with any other team. Even if it meant a better chance at winning a Stanley Cup.
At the same time, they didn’t outright say they wouldn’t waive their no-movement clauses should the Canucks ever ask them to. Like, say, in the final year of their deals (2017-18).
TSN1040 tracked down the writer of the Swedish story, Jonatan Lindquist, for a terrific interview today. You can listen to that in its entirety
here.
Lindquist is also from the twins' home town of Ornskoldsvik and knows them well. He says he typically sits down with them when they're home every summer.
Here are the key points from the interview:
• Even though it has always been assumed that the twins will end their hockey careers by playing one year for their hometown team in Modo, Lindquist said Daniel and Henrik basically closed the door on the idea. He thinks they're more likely to stay in Vancouver until the very end of their careers "because their families have settled so much there."
• Henrik said they'd stay in Vancouver for a year after they finish playing. Lindquist thinks the final decision about where they'll settle after their playing days are over will be made as a family, that their wives have settled in Vancouver and that they have so much going on.
"I'm not so sure that they're moving back anymore, and they said that they're taking it year by year."
• On the fact that they didn't explicitly rule out a trade from the Canucks at some point down the road, Lindquist says "I think if they get to decide, they will stay, so they get to represent the Canucks their entire career."
"Both Henrik and Daniel said that if the team wants to move you, there's really nothing you can do about it, even if you have a no-trade clause. If Vancouver wanted to move them before the deadline on the last year, I think they'd be willing to help the club."
• Lindquist doesn't think the Sedins would pack up and return to Sweden before their current contracts are complete, but he admits it could depend on the direction that the Canucks are going. "They know that there are going to be a couple of rough years, and Henrik said that they're going to have one more chance to win. It's not going to be this year or next year; it's maybe going to be the last year on their contracts."
Henrik's hoping that they'll be in supporting roles and that the younger guys will have taken over the leading roles. They didn't rule out playing more if the Canucks still want them, if they feel that they have a chance to win. That matters a lot to them.
• Outside of their hometown of Ornskoldsvik, the rest of Sweden really came to appreciate what the twins could do at the 2013 World Championships, when they came to Stockholm and helped the Swedish team capture the gold medal on home ice. "They pretty much won the gold by themselves."
"They're kinda big now. They like to keep a low profile so it's taken a bit of time."
• Lindquist met them for the interview. They work out at 7:00 every morning at Modo Arena, so he met them afterwards and they went to a coffee shop.
• They're doing off-ice workouts. They try to stay off the ice during the summer for an extended period of time.
• Lindquist asked if Daniel and Henrik would still hang out together all the time after their playing days are over. Daniel said they might not see each other every day, but they'd still work out and compete against each other in events like marathons or cross-country ski races in Sweden, mountain biking etc. So they're still looking forward to staying focused on fitness going forward.
• Daniel also said, kind of jokingly, that he'd like to be a stable boy. They have horses back in Sweden and Daniel's kids are involved in the equestrian scene here in Vancouver.
• Unless an injury forces one of them to retire before the other, they're going to stick together through these late stages of their careers. You won't see one twin taking a different path from the other.
• Summer activities in Sweden include looking after the horses, visiting the zoo, and other family stuff—boating, fishing. "Keeping the low profile."
• "Peter Forsberg and Markus Naslund have a charity team that they do every summer with a lot of NHLers, so that's the only real commitment they have." That runs the first week of August.
So there's the future according to Daniel and Henrik: the next two years are going to be rough, but by 2017-18, the Canucks should be back in contention as a top team, with the twins playing a support role for a new group of young stars.
And while they recognize the realities of the business, they have no intention of letting themselves get traded until the last months of the last year of their contract, if at all.
Finally, it sounds very much like the Sedins and their families will stay in Vancouver after their careers are over. As Lindquist pointed out, Ornskoldsvik is a town of just 30,000 people. He acknowledges that it doesn't compare to Vancouver in terms of what it has to offer the families.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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