The Sedins have been unique their entire careers, so of course the question of their Hall of Fame worthiness should itself be unique. Have two players ever been a package deal when it comes to the Hall of Fame?
Assessed on their individual merits, the Sedins are not locks for the Hall of Fame, though they are good bets. Iain Fyffe’s Hall of Fame Inductinator, which attempts to measure whether a player will get into the Hall of Fame rather than whether they should isn’t entirely sold on them individually.
Here are the factors that Fyffe saw as having the greatest impact on whether a player made the Hall or not, as well as how they were weighted, from the 2014 edition of Hockey Abstract:
- Post-season All-Star Teams - 26.6%
- Regular season goals scored - 17.1%
- High points-scoring seasons - 12.9%
- Regular season points scored - 9.3%
- Stanley Cups won - 5.7%
- Hart Trophies won - 4.4%
- Leading league in goals or points - 3.7%
- Lindsay/Pearson Awards won - 3.5%
- Lady Byng Trophies won - 3.2%
- Conn Smythe Trophies won - 3.1%
- High goal-scoring seasons - 3.1%
- Selke Awards won - 2.1%
- Other - 5.3%
A 2015 update added games played and seasons with over 100 points, which helps their candidacy, but not quite enough.
Henrik was a first-team All-Star twice, in 2009-10 and 2010-11, while Daniel has one first-team All-Star and one second-team All-Star nod in the same years. After that, things get dicey.
Daniel isn’t quite in the top-100 in goals scored among forwards, though a couple goals in these final three games could change that. Henrik is even further down the list, which is bad news for him, as goalscorers are prized by the Hall far more than playmakers.
Likewise, while the Sedins were steady point-per-game players in their primes, they had just two seasons each where they truly broke out and outperformed the rest of the league. And one of Daniel’s dominant seasons was marred by an injury that left him short of 30 goals and 90 points.
The fact that both have broken the 1000-point barrier is to their credit and helps their individual candidacies, but they’re still short of the top-50 in career points among forwards.
Then there are the trophies. The Hall of Fame still cares more about the Stanley Cup than any individual trophies, so that doesn’t help, but Henrik has a leg up with the more valuable Hart over the Ted Lindsay that Daniel won, with even the Art Ross weighed more heavily than the Ted Lindsay.
So, individually, they’re on the bubble of the Hockey Hall of Fame. Daniel has the benefit of more goals, while Henrik has the Hart in his favour.
But none of that really matters.
The Sedins aren’t going into the Hall as individual players. I mean, of course they are in a certain sense, as they’re unlikely to make them share a plaque, but they’re always going to be seen together.
It’s part of the reason why you often saw more Kesler jerseys than Sedin jerseys in Vancouver: which twin would you pick? You can’t separate them out because they were one unit.
And, as an utterly unique pair of careers in NHL history, they’re going into the Hall of Fame.
It certainly helps that they each individually have cases to be made for entering the Hall, from their Art Ross wins, 1000+ career points, and, if the Hall starts paying attention to such things, their fancy-stat dominance. But come on, you’re telling me that the Hall of Fame isn’t going to induct identical twins that won Art Ross trophies in back-to-back seasons? Who played all 1300+ games of their careers on the same line with one team? Who were easily the classiest players in the entire league across their 18 years in the NHL?
Go on, pull the other one.
The Sedins are going to be in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
