Henrik Sedin

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Henrik Sedin bigraphy, stories - Swedish ice hockey player

Henrik Sedin : biography

26 September 1980 –

Henrik Sedin (born September 26, 1980) is a Swedish professional ice hockey captain with the Vancouver Canucks of the National Hockey League (NHL). His identical twin brother Daniel also plays for the Canucks. Having played together throughout their career the pair are known for their effectiveness playing off one another. Henrik, a skilled passer, is known as the playmaker, while Daniel is known as the goalscorer. He has led the league in assists for the past three seasons. On February 15, 2013, Sedin became the all-time leading scorer for the Vancouver Canucks.

Henrik began his career in the Swedish Elite League with Modo Hockey in 1997 and was co-recipient, with Daniel, of the 1999 Golden Puck as Swedish player of the year. Selected third overall by the Canucks in the 1999 NHL Entry Draft, Henrik has spent his entire NHL career in Vancouver. He was selected one pick after his brother Daniel. After four seasons with the club, he became the Canucks’ top-scoring centre in 2005–06. 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). In 2009–10, he won the Hart Memorial and Art Ross Trophies as the NHL’s most valuable player and leading point-scorer, respectively. 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 Stipendium as Swedish athletes of the year.

Internationally, Henrik has competed for Sweden. He is a two-time Olympian and helped Sweden to a gold medal at the 2006 Winter Games in Turin. 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.

Playing style

Throughout his career, Henrik has scored more assists than goals. Known as a playmaker, he starts play sequences that lead to goals with passes to his teammates. Many of the plays he generates are created off the cycle. Henrik’s familiarity with Daniel’s play enhances his effectiveness; the pair are known for their ability to find each other intuitively with passes, often without looking.

Beginning around the 2008–09 season, Henrik began to expand his skill-set by scoring more goals. His increased tendency to shoot was given an extra push when Daniel suffered the first major injury of his career early in the 2009–10 season, forcing Henrik to play without his brother and consequently pass less often. He recorded the first two 20-goal seasons of his career in 2008–09 and 2009–10, and increased his shot totals.

With his offensive skill the prime component of his game, Henrik is known to avoid initiating contact with opposing players. Early in their career, he and Daniel were knocked off the puck easily, leading many in the media to refer to them as the "Sedin Sisters". As a result, players have often taken advantage of the brothers’ lack of physicality by playing aggressively against them. This once led Canucks general manager Brian Burke to publicly complain, commenting during a 2002 playoff series against the Detroit Red Wings, Sedin’ is not Swedish for ‘punch me or headlock me in a scrum’." As their careers progressed, the Sedins have worked on their strength, improving their puck possession and allowing them to play more effectively.

Personal life

Henrik is married to Johanna Sedin; they have two sons: Valter, who was born in 2006 in Vancouver and Harry, who was born on 12 May 2010. They live together in the city’s Yaletown neighbourhood, and return to Sweden during the off-season. In March 2010, Henrik and Johanna made a joint $1.5 million donation, with Daniel and his wife Marinette, to the BC Children’s Hospital’s $200-million project for a new building; the two families requested that it be put towards a pediatric intensive-care unit and a diagnostic imaging area. Henrik commented that it was something he and his wife had wanted to do since Valter was born.