Joe Sakic
Joseph Steven Sakic is a Canadian professional ice hockey executive and former player. He spent his entire 21-year National Hockey League career, which lasted from 1988 to 2009, with the Quebec Nordiques/Colorado Avalanche franchise. Named captain of the team in 1992, Sakic is regarded as one of the greatest team leaders in league history and was able to consistently motivate his team to play at a winning level. Nicknamed "Burnaby Joe", Sakic was named to 13 NHL All-Star Games and selected to the NHL First All-Star Team at centre three times. Sakic led the Avalanche to Stanley Cup titles in 1996 and 2001, earning the most valuable player in the 1996 playoffs. In 2001, Sakic earned both the Hart Memorial Trophy and Lester B. Pearson Award as MVP of the NHL. He is one of six players to participate in the first two of the team's Stanley Cup victories and won the Stanley Cup a third time with the Avalanche in 2022 while serving as the team's general manager. Sakic became the third person, after Milt Schmidt and Serge Savard, to win the Stanley Cup with the same franchise as a player and general manager.
Over his career, Sakic was one of the most productive forwards in the game, scoring 50 goals twice and earning at least 100 points in six different seasons. Sakic's wrist shot, considered one of the best in the NHL, was the source of much of his production as goalies around the league feared his rapid snap-shot release. At the conclusion of the 2008–09 NHL season, Sakic was the eighth all-time points leader in the NHL, as well as 14th in all-time goals and 11th in all-time assists. During the 2002 Winter Olympics, Sakic helped lead Team Canada to its first ice hockey gold medal in 50 years and was voted as the tournament's MVP. Sakic represented Team Canada in six other international competitions, including the 1998 and 2006 Winter Olympics.
Sakic retired from the NHL in 2009 and had his jersey number 19 retired prior to the Avalanche's 2009–10 season opener. In 2012, Sakic was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. In 2013, Sakic was inducted into the Canada's Sports Hall of Fame. In 2017, Sakic was named one of the 100 Greatest NHL Players in history. He was also inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2017.
Two years after retiring as a player, Sakic returned to the Avalanche organization in a management capacity, first serving as executive advisor and alternate governor from 2011 to 2013. Sakic was promoted to executive vice president of hockey operations on May 10, 2013, and named general manager the following year. After overseeing a team rebuild, culminating in the franchise's third Stanley Cup victory in 2022, Sakic won the Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year Award. The team announced shortly thereafter that Sakic was being promoted to president of hockey operations. He has spent all but three years of his adult life with the Nordiques/Avalanche as a player or executive.
Early life
Sakic was born in Burnaby, British Columbia, to Marijan and Slavica Šakić, immigrants from Croatia. Growing up in Burnaby, Sakic did not learn to speak English until kindergarten, having been raised with Croatian as his mother tongue. At the age of four, Sakic attended his first NHL game, a match between the Vancouver Canucks and Atlanta Flames. After watching the game, Sakic decided that he wanted to become a hockey player. As a smaller player, Sakic was forced to use skill rather than size to excel and modelled himself after his idol, Wayne Gretzky. After showing exceptional promise as a young hockey player, Sakic was referred to as a new Wayne Gretzky in the making. Sakic scored 83 goals and 156 points in 80 games for Burnaby BC Selects while attending school at Burnaby North Secondary. Soon after, he was added to the Lethbridge Broncos of the Western Hockey League for the last part of the 1985–86 season.During the 1986–87 season, the Broncos relocated to Swift Current, Saskatchewan, becoming the Swift Current Broncos. Sakic, playing in his first full season, scored 60 goals and 73 assists for 133 points. These totals saw him named Rookie of the Year of the WHL. But while Sakic enjoyed success on the ice, he and his team faced a tragedy on the night of December 30, 1986. The Broncos were driving to a game against the Regina Pats and due to bad weather conditions, the bus crashed after the driver lost control on a patch of black ice outside of Swift Current. While Sakic was unharmed, four of his teammates were killed. This incident had a lasting impact on the young Sakic, who declined to talk about the crash throughout his career. The next year, in 1987–88, Sakic was named the WHL Most Valuable Player and Canadian Major Junior Player of the Year. He scored 160 points, tying him with Theoren Fleury of the Moose Jaw Warriors for the WHL scoring title.
NHL career
Quebec Nordiques
Sakic was drafted 15th overall by the Quebec Nordiques in the 1987 NHL Entry Draft, a pick the Nordiques received when they traded away Dale Hunter and Clint Malarchuk to the Washington Capitals. Rather than make the immediate jump into the NHL, Sakic told Nordiques management he would prefer to spend the 1987–88 season in Swift Current to prepare for the NHL. Sakic made his professional debut on October 6, 1988, against the Hartford Whalers and registered an assist. His first NHL goal came two days later against goaltender Sean Burke of the New Jersey Devils. During the season, Sakic wore number 88, because his preferred number 19 was already taken by a teammate, Alain Côté. While considered a front-runner for rookie of the year due to his rapid scoring pace, an ankle injury forced Sakic to miss 10 games in December. The resulting scoring slump helped quash any hopes of winning the award. Sakic would finish his rookie season with 62 points in 70 games, finishing eighth in voting for the Calder. Defenceman Brian Leetch won the rookie scoring race with 28 goals and 48 assists, receiving forty-two first-place votes, while Sakic only received two third-place votes.In 1989–90, his second NHL season, Sakic was able to switch back to his familiar number 19 and scored 102 points, which was ninth overall in the league, becoming the first player in NHL history to score 100 points on a last place team. At the start of the next season, 1990–91, Sakic was named co-captain of the Nordiques along with Steven Finn. Sakic again passed the 100 point mark, improving to 109 points and sixth overall in the league but would slip during the 1991–92 season to 94 points after missing 11 games. In 1991–92, Mike Hough became captain of the Nordiques, while Sakic and Finn became alternate captains. Sakic began to display the leadership for which he would become known, standing firm during the tumultuous Eric Lindros holdout. With Lindros refusing to play for the Nordiques, one of the worst teams in league, Sakic commented, "We only want players here who have the passion to play the game. I'm tired of hearing that name. He's not here and there are a lot of others in this locker room who really care about the game." Lindros was traded a year later, ending the situation and bringing in a number of quality players who vastly improved the Nordiques. During their first four seasons with Joe Sakic, the Nordiques finished last place in the Adams Division and last in the league for three straight years, from 1989 to 1991.
Starting with the 1992–93 season, Sakic became the sole captain of the franchise. Under his leadership, the Nordiques made the playoffs for the first time in six years and set a franchise record for wins and points in the process. Sakic reached the 100-point plateau, the third time in five years, scoring 48 goals and 105 points in the regular season while adding another six points in the playoffs. After the shortened 1994–95 following the 1994–95 NHL lock-out, Sakic finished eight points behind Jaromír Jágr for the scoring title, finishing fourth place overall, and helped the Nordiques win the division title, their first since the 1985–86 season.
Colorado Avalanche
In May 1995, the Nordiques announced that the team had been sold and were relocating from Quebec. The franchise then moved to Denver, Colorado, and were renamed the Colorado Avalanche. Sakic led the team to a Stanley Cup championship in its first year, scoring 120 points in 82 regular season games and 34 points in 22 playoff games. Sakic was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player of the 1996 NHL playoffs. During the run for the Cup, Sakic again proved himself to be an effective team leader. Although his Nordiques had missed the playoffs in five of his first seven years in the NHL, he scored 18 goals, including six game-winners, and 34 points. Sakic was one goal away from the record for goals in a playoff year, and his game-winning goals established a new record.In the 1996–97 season, Sakic played in only 65 games due to a lacerated calf yet still managed to score 74 points as the Avalanche earned their first Presidents' Trophy and third straight division title. Sakic had another great playoff season with eight goals and 17 assists and took the Avalanche all the way to the conference finals, where they eventually lost to the Detroit Red Wings in six games. As a free agent during the summer of 1997, Sakic signed a three-year, $21 million offer sheet with the New York Rangers as a restricted free agent. Under the collective bargaining agreement at the time, the Avalanche had one week to match the Rangers' offer or let go of Sakic in exchange for five first-round draft picks as compensation. While it seemed as if the Avalanche could not afford to keep Sakic, as they had already committed large amounts of salary to Peter Forsberg and Patrick Roy, an unlikely lifeline would appear in the form of the summer blockbuster movie Air Force One, produced by Avalanche owners COMSAT. Its profits enabled the Avalanche to match the offer, which instigated a salary raise for many NHL players.
Injuries would again limit Sakic's playing time during the 1997–98 season. While playing in his first Olympics with Team Canada, Sakic hurt his knee and was forced to miss 18 games with the Avalanche. In the 64 games in which he did play, Sakic still scored 63 points, enough to earn him his seventh all-star appearance. Sakic finally rebounded from his injuries in the 1998–99 season, finishing fifth in the league in scoring with 41 goals and 96 points in only 73 games. Sakic led the Avalanche to within one game of the Stanley Cup Finals, where they lost to the eventual champion Dallas Stars. After the season ended, Sakic ranked number 94 on The Hockey News' list of the 100 greatest hockey players.
During the 1999–2000 season, Sakic reached several career milestones. Injuries limited him to only 60 games, but he still managed to lead the team in scoring with 81 points. On December 27, 1999, against the St. Louis Blues, Sakic earned an assist to become the 56th player in NHL history to reach 1,000 career points. Later in the season, on March 23, 2000, he scored a hat-trick against the Phoenix Coyotes and became the 59th player to score 400 career goals. It also gave Sakic 1,049 points with the franchise, passing Peter Šťastný as the all-time leader on the team.
Sakic eclipsed the 100 point mark again in 2000–01, finishing with 118 points along with a career-best 54 goals, both second-best in the league. Sakic won the Hart Memorial Trophy, the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy and the Lester B. Pearson Award while also being a finalist for the Frank J. Selke Trophy. Sakic led the Avalanche to their second Stanley Cup championship, defeating the defending title holding New Jersey Devils in seven games. Memorably, after receiving the Stanley Cup from NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, Sakic broke with tradition. Instead of hoisting it first as most captains do, Sakic passed the cup straight to Ray Bourque, a player who had waited a record-breaking 22 seasons to win the Stanley Cup.
Sakic led the Avalanche in scoring again in the 2001–02 season, finishing sixth in the league with 79 points. On March 9, 2002, Sakic played in his 1,000th career game. The Avalanche once again reached the Western Conference Finals but lost to the eventual cup-winning Detroit Red Wings. The following year, Sakic appeared in only 58 games and finished with just 58 points. Sakic rebounded the following year, finishing third in the league with 87 points. It also marked the first time since the 1993–94 season that the franchise did not win the division title, which was won by the Vancouver Canucks.
Following the 2004–05 NHL lock-out, the Avalanche were forced to lose many of their key players in order to stay below the salary cap. Even with the loss of teammates Peter Forsberg and Adam Foote, Sakic still helped the Avalanche get into the playoffs, where they eventually lost to the Anaheim Ducks in the conference semi-finals. In June 2006, Sakic signed a one-year, $5.75 million deal to keep him with the Avalanche for the 2006–07 season. Upon the retirement of Steve Yzerman a month later, on July 3, 2006, Sakic became the league leader for most career points among active players.
Sakic had another strong season in the 2006–07. He scored his 600th career goal on February 15, 2007, against the Calgary Flames, becoming the 17th player in history to reach the milestone and third that year. On the final day of the regular season, Sakic scored his 100th point, reaching the milestone for the sixth time in his career. At the same time, Sakic became the second-oldest NHL player to score 100 points in a season at age 37, alongside hockey legend Gordie Howe. Despite his efforts, as well as a late-season charge, Sakic and the Avalanche missed the playoffs for the first time in 11 years, finishing one point behind the eighth placed Calgary Flames. On May 1, the NHL announced that Sakic was named as one of the three finalists for the Lady Byng Trophy, but it was eventually awarded to Pavel Datsyuk of the Detroit Red Wings.
In April 2007, Sakic signed to a 19th NHL season with the Avalanche on a one-year deal for the 2007–08 season. Sakic commented on the deal, saying, "at this stage in my career, I prefer to do one-year deals as I evaluate my play year-to-year." Upon signing Sakic to the deal, Avalanche General Manager François Giguère said, "Joe is the heart of this organization and his leadership and value to this team and especially our young players is unquestioned." On October 7, 2007, he scored a goal and had an assist against the San Jose Sharks, moving past Phil Esposito into eighth place on the NHL career points list with 1,591 points. Nineteen days later, Sakic scored a goal and assisted Ryan Smyth for an overtime game-winning goal against the Calgary Flames, reaching his 1,600th point in the NHL. On December 27, 2007, it was announced that Sakic underwent hernia surgery to accelerate the recovery of an injury that had forced him to miss the previous 12 games after a 232 consecutive games-played streak. The operation caused him to miss a career-high 38 games. He was activated off injured reserve on February 24 and played that night, recording an assist. On March 22, 2008, Sakic recorded his 1,000th career assist against the Edmonton Oilers, becoming the 11th player in NHL history to reach the milestone.
In June 2008, Sakic spoke with Colorado General Manager François Giguère and said he was uncertain with his future with the Avalanche. However, it was announced on August 27, 2008, that Sakic would sign a one-year contract with the team. Injuries limited Sakic's playing time in 2008–09. After 15 games, in which he scored 12 points, a herniated disk forced Sakic to stop playing in early November. While at home letting his back heal, Sakic broke three fingers in a snow-blower accident.
Sakic announced his retirement on July 9, 2009 The Avalanche retired his jersey number 19 prior to their 2009–10 season opener on October 1, 2009, with a "C" on the banner to represent his lengthy service as team captain. The Avalanche also named Sakic the inaugural member of the Avalanche Alumni Association.