After last night's game against the Dallas Stars, the Canucks' 41st of the season, Vancouver is at the midway point of its 08-09 NHL season.
This season happens to be the eighth of their career for Daniel and Henrik Sedin, who have been wowing Canucks fans with 2-minute cycles in the offensive zone, slap passes and poor playoff performances for the better part of a decade. As such, it is now time to determine the question that has been on every Vancouver fan's mind since Daniel and Henrik were taken second and third, respectively, in the first round of the 1999 NHL Entry Draft: who is the better hockey player?
Clearly the twins are offensive players, so they will be judged solely on their offensive output. And, as of today, Daniel is clearly the superior Sedin with 421 points to Henrik's relatively paltry 415. Not only has Danny scored six more career points than Hank, he has done it in four fewer games!
Yes, Henrik has played in 605 regular season games while Daniel has suited up for a mere 601 matches. That means that Daniel's point-per-game average is 0.700, dwarfing his brother's 0.686 average. It doesn't take Einstein to tell you which player is better!
So, now that Daniel superiority has been clearly established I think it is time to ditch this whole "identical twins, identical contracts" nonsense that has been the basis of every Sedin contract thus far in their career. When it is time to re-up the twins at the end of this season, I suggest that Mike Gillis give Daniel the farm and lowball Henrik.
Hey, it's only fair based on their respective statistical histories. You never heard anyone complaining that Brent Gretzky got paid less money during his (13 game) NHL career than did his brother Wayne, right? So why should the Sedins be any different?
5 comments:
Why are you talking only about the numbers in this discussion? Do 6 points really make Daniel that much better? Look a bit closer, and you will realize that Daniel is that much better because he only has 14 PIM compared to his brother's 30 PIM. Daniel is very rarely caught standing still whereas his brother gets called for hooking pretty often. That is where the real difference is, Daniel hustles almost every second he's on the ice. Henrik doesn't.
P.S. There is also the fact that Daniel has scored 167 goals and Henrik only has 94 goals. Daniel is clearly better at getting the puck in the net.
Both good points, especially the penalty minutes one. This year especially Henrik has taken some ridiculously bad/unnecessary penalties, and I fully agree that this has been a big knock against him.
Overall though I didn't want to drill too much into it - there's not too much to separate the two over their careers(though an argument can definitely be made) so I was just having fun with making sweeping judgments of the twins based on just a few simple stats. I actually thought of doing this post because at some point before Daniel's recent hot streak they were actually tied in career points.
'Zounds! You people and your numbers! Can we really quantify the worth of another human! What if Henrik is a better off-ice leader? What if he counsels Daniel through difficult times? What if he's the one who remembers their mother's birthday, saving Daniel from stress that might otherwise impact his on ice competence? He may just be the wind beneath Daniel's wings AND still manage to score some goals. Really, though, it's never a good idea to compare brothers. Trust me.
I enjoy the responses. I would say that Henrik's 301 assists contribute greatly to the number of goals Daniel scores. Perhaps that is a way that Daniel is lacking in ability for his brother. They are definitely a package deal, and should stay that way. I don't think as a pair the Gretzky brothers compare to our Sedin twins. Though of course Wayne can outshine everyone on his own.
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