Considering the Vancouver Canucks’ history with Daniel and Henrik Sedin, the idea that the team could draft a set of homegrown, high-scoring twins this off-season is bound to get more and more attention going forward.
And, just for fun, we’ll pile on a little more to that premise right here. Markus and Liam Ruck, who are atop the WHL scoring race and are key reasons why the Medicine Hat Tigers look like contenders for the league title, grew up Canucks fans. Their childhood bedroom in Osoyoos was even painted in team colours.
It will take some general manager gymnastics from Patrik Allvin for the Canucks to land both brothers at the June 26-27 draft in Buffalo. You’ll remember that then-Vancouver GM Brian Burke had to make three trades to be able to get both Sedins in 1999.
Daniel and Henrik were both tagged for top selections going in, and Burke picked them at No. 2 and No. 3, respectively. Where the Rucks fit in their draft class isn’t nearly as defined, so there’s even more moving parts to deal with in this scenario.
Opinions on how early the brothers might be selected vary. TSN’s Craig Button slotted Liam at No. 22 and Markus at No. 29 overall in his draft rankings in January. Sam Cosentino at Sportsnet did a first-round ranking last month and had Liam at No. 25, with no sign of Markus. Elite Prospects, meanwhile, has Liam at No. 27 and Markus at No. 56 in its most recent prognostications .
Regardless, it’s going to take some doing for the Canucks or another team to select both forwards. It’s far from a sure thing. But it doesn’t mean you can’t ponder it right now, does it?
“Obviously, we’ll see about the draft and how all the stuff plays out, but that would be a huge honour to play for the team that you grew up watching and going down to see play every now and then,” Liam said of the Canucks. “It would be a pretty cool, surreal moment.”
Markus added: “We shared a bedroom and our walls were Canuck colours. That was the closest team to us and we grew up fans.”
With one week left in the regular season, Markus leads the WHL in scoring with 102 points, including 20 goals. He’s the set-up man of the pair, the Henrik to put it in the Sedin lexicon. Liam is second in scoring in the loop with 99 points. He’s the Daniel, the shooter. He’s sitting at 43 goals, which is third, trailing Seattle Thunderbirds winger Cameron Schmidt (45) and his Medicine Hat blue liner teammate Bryce Pickford (44).
Medicine Hat’s coach is Willie Desjardins. He was the Canucks bench boss for three seasons (2014-17), and the Sedins were among his core group of players. Desjardins told Postmedia last month that he would go out of his way to try to select both Rucks in June if he was in charge of an NHL team, because “their chemistry is something else,” and “you see them do things that you don’t see other hockey players do and it works.”
He maintained that comparisons between the two sets of siblings are unfair, considering everything the Sedins accomplished over their 17-year Vancouver careers. At the same time, those comments about chemistry and doing things that you don’t regularly witness can easily lead to linking the duos.
“How often do we get asked about the Sedins? We’ve heard it a couple of times,” chuckled Liam, who, like his brother, has never spoken to either Daniel or Henrik. “Obviously, they are unbelievable players. We don’t think we deserve to be in the same sentence with them. They are hall of famers. But it is a cool thing to be a set of twins in hockey just like they were.”
Markus added: “We used to watch their highlights a lot. To see the cool plays they’d make … it was crazy what they did.”
Markus believes that the Rucks’ calling card as players is hockey IQ.
“I think we have good brains on us. We’re smart players out on the ice,” said Markus, who lined up alongside his brother for four seasons at Okanagan Hockey Academy in Penticton before joining the Tigers last year. “I think we always have a good idea where everyone is on the ice on both teams. I think that’s something you need at the next level.
“I think we need to dial in a couple of things, our skating being the main one. We need to work on that. I think our brains are what’s going to help us try to get to that next level.”
Twins as teammates for the long haul in the NHL — like the Sedins were — is the exception rather than the rule.
Notables include the Sutter twins Ron (No. 4 overall to the Philadelphia Flyers) and Rich (No. 10 overall to the Pittsburgh Penguins), who were a part of the 1982 NHL Draft. The forwards both played in the league for more than 800 games, and that included parts of five seasons together with the Flyers and then the St. Louis Blues.
New York Rangers goalie great Henrik Lundqvist (seventh rounder) and his twin brother Joel (third rounder, Dallas Stars) were picked in 2000. Joel, a centre, was always a rival on the ice, spending his three-year turn in the NHL with Dallas.
The Russell twins Kris (third round, Columbus Blue Jackets) and Ryan (seventh round) were 2005 selections, and they became organization mates in 2011-12 when Ryan, a centre, was traded to the Blue Jackets. That was his lone NHL season, starting with a call-up from the minors in January. He missed out on playing alongside Kris, though, since Columbus had traded the defenceman to the Blues in November.
The Rucks insist that they understand the draft situation puts destinations out of their control.
“Obviously, our hope and our plan is to get drafted together and play our careers together,” said Liam, who’s a 6-foot, 175-pound right-shot winger. “That’s obviously the goal for us.
“If we’re not selected together, we’re going to try to be at our personal best and do what’s going to be best for the teams that we’re drafted to and make an impact as soon as we can.”
The Tigers have two regular season games left: A weekend home-and-home with the Red Deer Rebels that wraps up with a game in Medicine Hat Saturday.
Markus maintains there’s no sibling rivalry when it comes to the brothers both chasing the scoring title, saying “we try not to look at the points. Our teammates maybe let us know about it every once and awhile, but we’re really just trying to have fun each day and compete in every game.”
Medicine Hat (48-10-5-3) and the Prince Albert Raiders (49-10-5-1) are duelling atop the Eastern Conference. They’re tied in points, but Prince Albert — who features Canucks centre prospect Braeden Cootes — has a game in hand.
The Tigers won the WHL playoff crown last season, led by Gavin McKenna. Markus (eight goals, 29 points) and Liam (25 goals, 41 points) played complementary roles for that squad. Medicine Hat lost the likes of McKenna and fellow forward Ryder Ritchie to the NCAA ranks this summer, but the group that returned has been buoyed by last year’s run, according to Markus.
“I love our team. I love what we have going into playoffs,” explained Markus, who’s a 6-foot, 167-pound left-shot centre. “We have lot of big players, which helps, especially in playoffs. We have to play our game and finish our checks and wear down the opposing defencemen as the series goes on.
“I think our bigger lines are gonna be really important for us. The big boys are going to play playoff hockey and I think if we do that and everyone buys into the team we can have success in playoffs.”