Sedins committed, but are they still effective? Matt Sekeres explores the Sedins commitment to playing in Vancouver

By all rights, this should be the Sedin twins’ final season as Vancouver Canucks.

There were tones of that in a sincere letter the twins co-authored in The Players’ Tribune, but there were also several references to a unclear future beyond this season, including this joke (?) from Daniel Sedin:

“Who knows, we might have a few more years left in us. Maybe we need to speak with Jagr.”

The Sedins, who turn 37 on Sept. 26, are famously the two best conditioned Canucks year-in, year-out, and the letter shed light on their regiment.

A YVR-to-North-Vancouver bike ride before the Grouse Grind? Ridiculous. That’s the stuff of Ironman triathletes.

But here’s the rub, as much as their commitment remains as strong as ever, their effectiveness does not.

That was painfully evident last year when the twins did not have the puck, particularly when it was a transition opportunity for the other guys. Speed has never been their game, but they simply didn’t have the wheels to catch up. In three-on-three overtime, it was even more pronounced.

Heck, even puck retrieval in small areas was a problem, and that is going to affect their linemate and new head coach Travis Green’s lineup options this season. More on that later.

But for now, Henrik and Daniel enter the 2017-18 season gobbling up $14 million (all figures U.S.) in cap space, and presumably second-line minutes behind Bo Horvat’s trio.

They won’t be trade-deadline fodder, a point they’ve made crystal clear no matter how many mistaken Canucks fans think a Sedins trade could jumpstart the club’s rebuild. They will only play for the Canucks, and by season’s end, assuming he stays healthy, Daniel will join his brother as the only 1,000-point player in franchise history.

Going forward, the questions are: whether they want to continue their careers beyond this season? And whether Canucks management succumbs to sentimentality?

Because while no two players deserve an ending of their choosing more than the twins, the Canucks cannot afford to muddle their rebuild for the sake of two aging players.

President Trevor Linden and general manager Jim Benning bowed their collective necks in contract negotiations this summer, agreeing to extend restricted free-agent defenceman Erik Gudbranson by just one season; and taking most of the summer to get Horvat done, while refusing to go to the maximum eight-year extension. They should keep that up with the Sedins, even if the twins aren’t ready to say this is their swan song.

“We’ll see,” Daniel said Monday about their future. “We’re going to have a good season this year, work extremely hard, and then we’ll see what happens after that.”

Canucks management cannot cave to giving the twins an ending beyond this season. They’ve earned roughly $140 million combined from the Canucks in their careers, and while the organization owes them thanks, praise and two banners in the rafters with Nos. 33 and 22, it does not owe them another year in blue and green.

Already this season, keeping the twins will complicate the job of Green. Because of their defensive deficiencies, the new coach can’t use just any right winger by the twins side. And that will have a trickle down effect to the rest of the lineup.

Markus Granlund, with whom they had some success last year, and fellow Swede Loui Eriksson make the most sense. Both can take care of their own end and win back pucks.

But what does that mean for the rest of the lineup? Does it preclude Granlund from taking some turns at centre? Does it prevent Thomas Vanek and rookie Brock Boeser, two natural goal-scorers, from playing with the twins at even strength and boosting their point potential? And, of course, only being able to use certain kinds of right wingers with the twins will determine who plays on the other three lines.

Henrik Sedin had 50 points last year. Daniel had 44. They can still be strong power-play performers, and they might just be able to improve on that this season with good health and better luck. They are future Hall-of-Fame inductees.

But it behooves the Canucks to make a painful decision sooner rather than later, while still doing right by the twins. They wouldn’t want to repeat the mistake the Arizona Coyotes made with franchise legend Shane Doan, by not being clear, and waiting too long.

The Canucks should let the twins know that they can no longer commit big dollars or minutes beyond this season. That the rebuild has to go forward without them, giving that this is the third successive year of the bring-the-kids-along thing. That’s enough.

And they should give their fans the same clarity, letting them know — unequivocally — that the forthcoming season is a farewell tour for the two best players (and citizens) the franchise has ever known. It might just help sagging attendance at Rogers Arena as a happy byproduct. It might just give a difficult season meaning.

For two guys who have always put team before individual, here’s betting the twins can get behind that. Difficult as it might be hear, or say.​