Can't remember the specific rankings, but both were consensus top 5. It was considered a major coup for burke to get both.
Yup, definitely fun to look back at it. I remember waking up, turning on the draft, and the announcers struggling to explain the series of trades that had occurred.
- Chicago wins the draft lottery on May 16, 1999 but only get to move up from #8 to #4. Brian Burke started bugging Blackhawks GM Bob Murray about moving the pick potentially. As I understand it, they had a handshake agreement (Vancouver would give up a young Bryan McCabe and a future 1st) contingent on Burke securing both Sedins. Years later, Burke and Murray would work together in Anaheim.
First of all, Tampa Bay needs scorer
- Rick Dudley was the first year GM in Tampa and he inherited a relatively barren club. Most figured they'd target a winger (Brendl or D.Sedin) to pair with Vinny Lecavalier. But Dudley thought he might be able to spin the pick into multiple assets (definitely a cautionary tale).
- According to Burke he bugged Dudley nonstop but was rebuffed until the night before / morning of the Draft. Not sure if Burke knew, but Dudley had another deal worked out after this one.
- Vancouver temporarily moved up from #4 to #1, and only needed to send a pair of 3rd rounders to get it done. Burke then convinced Atlanta GM Don Waddell to trade #2 and a 3rd rounder to move up for #1, this way Burke could draft both Sedins at the same time. Atlanta then had the PR story about having the #1 overall pick.
- Tampa would then trade #4 to the Rangers for Niklas Sundstrom, Dan Cloutier, and a future 1st and 3rd round picks. With the 2000 Expansion Draft looming, they figured they couldn't protect both Mike Richter and Dan Cloutier.
- A few weeks later, Tampa traded Niklas Sundstrom to San Jose for Andrei Zyuzin, Bill Houlder, Shawn Burr, and Stephen Guolla. Sharks GM Dean Lombardi admitted later that he had buyer's remorse about drafting Zyuzin in 1996, so he was more than happy to trade him while he still had trade value.
- In the end, Dudley turned the #1 overall pick into Cloutier, Zyuzin, Houlder, Burr, Guolla, and the #8 pick in 2000 (Nikita Alexeev). Probably not a string of deals that Dudley will put on his highlight reel.
Edit: Found some more info -
Canucks at 50: The Sedins are No. 1 and 1A on the list of the greatest Canucks of all time
Dudley wanted a second- and fourth-rounder to trade places with the Canucks. Burke was offering two thirds and hung up on Dudley when the Bolts’ GM wouldn’t budge. That left Burke sitting there on the morning of June 26, 1999, wondering if he’d just traded Bryan McCabe, a first-rounder and two thirds for Pavel Brendl and not, in fact, the Sedin twins.
Dudley, it would be revealed, was always going to make the deal with Burke because he had another trade cooking with the Rangers for the fourth-overall pick.
This was interesting as well:
The fun actually started on the final day of the NHL regular season when Cory Stillman’s goal with four seconds left gave the Flames a 5-4 win over the Canucks and dropped the Orcans to 26th overall in the 27-team NHL.
Boxscore from that game:
Calgary Flames at Vancouver Canucks Box Score — April 14, 1999 | Hockey-Reference.com
If Vancouver had tied/won that game, they would have swapped spots with the Islanders heading into lottery. Assuming Chicago still wins the lottery, Vancouver's own pick would have been bumped to #5 and likely would have meant no chance at getting both Sedins. Fun to think what that alternate universe might have looked like, maybe it's Mike Milbury who's able to unite the Twins?
