The Vancouver Canucks make three trades on the morning of the NHL Entry Draft in Boston to lock down the second and third overall selections, which general manager Brian Burke uses to pick 18-year-old twin brothers Henrik and Daniel Sedin.
Burke had to do some tricky stickhandling to score the two blue-chip forwards, who played for Modo in the Swedish Elite League and wanted to remain together as players. Having ended the season with the worst record in the Western Conference for the second year in a row, the Canucks were in rebuilding mode and already had the number three pick. Burke then traded away Bryan McCabe and a future first rounder to the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for the number four pick. This left two top five choices, and he needed to ensure that either the Tampa Bay Lightning or Atlanta Thrashers would scoop one of them up. Burke consequently swapped two later round selections and the number four pick to the ‘Bolts in order to move into their number one slot, and then sent a pick to Atlanta to allow them to move to number one after a guarantee not to pick either of the brothers.
The Thrashers instead went with Czech centre Patrik Stefan for the first pick, a move now regarded as one of the worst first round draft decisions in NHL history. Stefan is best remembered today for, as a member of the Dallas Stars, missing an empty net and then tripping, allowing an opposing player to steal the puck and score with two seconds remaining on the clock.
Henrik and Daniel, now 34, both went on to become eventual Art Ross Trophy winners and currently hold the top two team records for regular season points.
