Should the Sedins return to the Vancouver Canucks next year?

by Nathan Caddell on March 22nd, 2018 at 9:26 PM

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Can the Sedins go through this again?

Or, maybe the better question: why would the Sedins want to go through this again?

Henrik Sedin was named first star in tonight’s game against the Chicago Blackhawks, Vancouver’s first win in eight games. Sedin had a goal and an assist, and his brother, Daniel, also notched a helper.

It was Henrik’s first point in nine games. It was his first goal since the middle of November. So yeah, the streak of losing is over, but it won't be soon forgotten. The win over Chicago was the team's sixth victory since the start of February.

The hard part of all this for the Sedins has to be that, as the club went through a particularly horrid stretch, they were the ones that had to be trotted out there every night to answer questions. And of course, they probably wouldn’t have it any other way. But it had to be rough, accounting for losses in which the team simply couldn’t score (in the seven games leading up to tonight’s contest, the club had registered seven goals).

It’s clear the team can’t put the puck in the net without Brock Boeser, and the Sedins have to take some heat for that. But the fact is that they aren’t getting the ice time that key players often consume. Consider that, for the season, Henrik is just above Derek Dorsett in terms of ice time, while Daniel is below Dorsett and just above Darren Archibald, a career AHLer. When you factor in even strength ice time only, the Sedins are even lower than that.

That’s not to say that Travis Green is using them incorrectly. Green prefers to give big minutes to players who can play effectively in both zones (hint: most coaches do) and he knows the Sedins aren’t exactly demons on the backcheck at this point in their careers.

The point is that after a second straight season of futility in which the Sedins have to answer to the media after every game, even as they are increasingly less responsible for the results being had on the ice, this has got to be getting pretty annoying.

And what’s going to change next year? Maybe the Canucks will win the draft lottery and select Rasmus Dahlin, and the Sedins can mentor him and Elias Pettersson. That’s probably the best-case scenario: the twins are back again as third liners (in terms of ice time) to advise the kids and lead by example as the Canucks miss the playoffs once again.

Is that worth coming back for?

The Sedins are still worthy contributors, that can’t be denied. They are second and third on the team in scoring. But they’ve also faded down the stretch, especially without Boeser to take meaningful heat off their line and give the twins better matchups.

They would be able to contribute to a Stanley Cup contender with ease and if they were to take a pay cut, it wouldn’t be impossible to fit them onto a playoff team’s third line and second powerplay unit. It’d be nice to see too, as the twins deserve one more shot at NHL glory.

But they don’t want to leave Vancouver, which is sad and heartwarming at the same time. So if it’s the Canucks or bust, they might be best served just heading off into the sunset.

And hey, maybe they’re coming to the realization that, while they can certainly still play, they don’t want to go through this debacle again next year.