"Daniel and Henrik Sedin are exceptional hockey players — and outstanding citizens off the ice as well, having donated $1.5 million this week toward construction of a new B.C. Children's Hospital.

"We're thrilled," Stephen Forgacs, director of communications for the B.C. Children's Hospital Foundation, told The Province on Wednesday night.

"It came right out of the blue."

The donation from the twins — considered national treasures in their native Sweden — and their wives Marinette and Johanna, brings the campaign to raise money for a new Children's to more than $100 million.

"They've designated [their donation] specifically to the pediatric intensive-care unit and the diagnostics and imaging areas in the new hospital," said Forgacs.

The campaign to build a new Children's began in 2008. The foundation is hoping to raise $200 million of the $500-million-plus total bill, with the provincial government promising to make up the rest of the funding.

Construction is expected to begin this year, said Forgacs.

The Sedins were drafted by the Canucks as teens and have lived in Vancouver for the past 10 years."