Daniel and Henrik Sedin came into the league together with the Vancouver Canucks and, 19 years later, they will leave together.
And that's the way it should be, says Carl Hagelin.
"I can only imagine how proud they are of what they’ve accomplished," Hagelin, a teammate of the Sedins at the 2016 World Cup, was telling me after Penguins practice on Tuesday.
The Swedish twin brothers announced that this will be their final season, sparking an outpouring of emotions around the league.
Henrik (1,068 points) and Daniel (1,038 points) are the two leading scorers in Canucks history and rank fourth and fifth, respectively, among all Swedish players in NHL history, trailing only Mats Sundin (1,349), Daniel Alfredsson (1,157) and Nicklas Lidstrom (1,142).
Obviously, the brothers -- the second and third overall picks in the 1999 draft -- are a big deal in his native country, Hagelin said, not just for hockey.
"Two legends coming in, had a lot of pressure on them from a young age," Hagelin said. "They’ve proven everybody wrong every single year. They said they were too soft to play in the league. I think they’ve shown a lot of toughness in their career, playing so many games, playing against top D pairs, getting abused, but they kept putting up points and being great leaders on the ice. And what they’ve done in the community in Vancouver is pretty impressive."
In 20 career games against the Penguins, Henrik Sedin had 16 points (13 assists), while Daniel had 12 points (five goals) in 21 games.