Henrik Sedin

Player

Birthday September 26, 1980

Birth Sign Libra

Birthplace Örnsköldsvik, Sweden

Age 43 years old

Nationality Sweden

Height 1.88 m

Weight 188 lb (85 kg; 13 st 6 lb)

#22980 Most Popular

1960

Their father, Tommy, is a school vice principal who played for Modo Hockey in the 1960s; their mother, Tora, is a nurse.

Henrik began playing organized hockey with Daniel when they were eight.

They did not regularly play on the same line until Daniel switched from centre to wing at the age of 14.

Henrik and Daniel attended high school at Nolaskolan Gymnasium in their hometown in Sweden while playing professionally for Modo Hockey.

1980

Henrik Lars Sedin (born 26 September 1980) is a Swedish ice hockey executive and former centre who played his entire 17-season National Hockey League (NHL) career with the Vancouver Canucks from 2000 to 2018.

Henrik was born on 26 September 1980 in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden, six minutes before his identical twin brother, Daniel.

The pair have two older brothers, Stefan and Peter.

1997

Sedin began his career in the Swedish Hockey League with Modo Hockey in 1997 and was co-recipient, with brother Daniel, of the 1999 Golden Puck as Swedish player of the year.

Aged 16, Henrik and Daniel Sedin began their professional careers in 1997–98 with Modo Hockey of the Swedish Hockey League.

Henrik recorded a goal and five points over 39 games during his rookie season.

In his second year with Modo, he improved to 12 goals and 34 points, joint second in team scoring with Samuel Påhlsson, behind Daniel.

At the end of the season, Henrik and Daniel were named co-recipients of the Golden Puck, the Swedish player of the year award.

1999

Selected third overall—one pick after brother Daniel—by the Canucks in the 1999 NHL Entry Draft, Sedin spent his entire NHL career in Vancouver.

In five appearances at the IIHF World Championships, he has won bronze medals in 1999 and 2001 and clinched the world title in 2013.

At the junior level, he appeared in one World U17 Hockey Challenge (where he won silver), two European Junior and three World Junior Championships.

The Sedins were considered top prospects for the 1999 NHL Entry Draft.

Rated as the top European prospects, they were expected to be top five selections and expressed a desire to play for the same team.

Their agent, Mike Barnett, president of international talent agency IMG, presented them with two options to circumvent the usual NHL draft process, allowing them to play together.

The first option was for the pair to enter the 1999 draft and not sign with their respective NHL clubs for two years, allowing them to become unrestricted free agents.

This option required that they play junior ice hockey in North America, which was not their intention.

Barnett also suggested that either Henrik or Daniel opt out of the 1999 draft, in the hope that the same team that selected the first twin would select the other the following year.

On the possibility of the Sedins' playing for separate teams, Vancouver Canucks scout Thomas Gradin commented, "They're good enough to play with anyone, but separately their capacity might decrease by 10 or 15 percent."

Nevertheless, Henrik and Daniel both entered the 1999 draft expecting to be selected by separate teams.

However, then-Canucks general manager Brian Burke already possessed the third overall pick and through a series of transactions he obtained the second overall pick.

He used these second and third overall picks to select Daniel and Henrik, respectively.

Gradin notified them of the Canucks' intentions five minutes before the draft.

Although then-Tampa Bay Lightning general manager Rick Dudley was ready to make Daniel his first overall choice before opening negotiations, he was convinced by Burke and Barnett that Daniel would not sign unless his brother was on the same team.

On 27 July 1999, a month following the draft, Henrik and Daniel signed three-year contracts with the Canucks.

2005

After four seasons with the club, he became the Canucks' top-scoring centre in 2005–06.

2006

He is a two-time Olympian and helped Sweden to a gold medal at the 2006 Winter Games in Turin.

2007

He has since won three Cyrus H. McLean Trophies as the team's leading point-scorer (from 2007–08 to 2009–10) and one Cyclone Taylor Award as the team's most valuable player (2010).

2009

In 2009–10, he won the Hart Memorial Trophy as well as the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player and leading point-scorer, respectively.

2010

He additionally served as the Canucks' captain from 2010 until his retirement.

Born and raised in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden, Sedin and his identical twin brother Daniel played together throughout their careers; the pair were renowned for their effectiveness as a tandem.

Henrik, a skilled passer, was known as a playmaker (150+ more career NHL assists than Daniel) while Daniel was known as a goal-scorer (150+ more career NHL goals than Henrik).

Sedin tallied 240 goals and 830 assists, for 1,070 points, in 1,330 NHL games, ranking him as the Canucks' all-time leading points scorer.

He was also named to the NHL first All-Star team that year and again in 2010–11, a season that included an appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals, where Vancouver lost to the Boston Bruins in seven games.

That summer, Henrik and Daniel were named co-recipients of the Victoria Scholarship as Swedish athletes of the year.

Alongside his brother, Henrik was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2022.

Internationally, Sedin has competed on Sweden's national ice hockey team.