- Joe Sakic will stay on as Avalanche general manager full-time, with no external search planned
- Sakic picked up the GM title in June when Chris MacFarland left Colorado for Nashville
- Read below for what Denver Gazette and Associated Press sources said about the decision
Joe Sakic is not handing the Colorado general manager job to anybody.
Sakic will run the Avalanche as GM full-time and the club is not conducting a search to replace him, Evan Rawal of the Denver Gazette reported Monday, citing team sources.
Rawal said team sources kept landing on one word to describe Sakic back in the GM chair. Here’s his report:
The Associated Press had the same news Monday. A person with knowledge of the situation told the AP that Sakic will hold the role indefinitely, and that the club has not announced the decision yet.
MacFarland’s departure is what opened the job. Nashville hired him in June as its president of hockey operations and general manager.
He is not new to the chair. Sakic ran Colorado’s front office from 2014 to 2022 and built the 2022 Stanley Cup team before sliding up to president of hockey operations and handing the GM duties to MacFarland, his former assistant.
Nobody else in league history has won a Cup as a captain and as a general manager with the same franchise.
His months as the interim guy were not quiet ones. Sakic signed Cale Makar to an eight-year, $163.2 million extension in late August, traded Valeri Nichushkin to Columbus for picks to open the room for it, sent Ross Colton and later Jack Drury to Nashville, and added Jaden Schwartz on a three-year deal.
Here’s the announcement from Aug. 28:
Makar’s deal is the largest total contract any NHL player has ever signed. It clears Kirill Kaprizov’s eight-year, $136 million pact by more than $27 million, and Alex Ovechkin’s old 13-year, $124 million agreement sits third on the list. Sakic said at the time that you can’t win without superstars.
Check out where the Makar money lands all time:
Colorado won the Presidents’ Trophy last season, then got swept by Vegas in four games in the Western Conference Final. That ending did not push Sakic toward the door.
Sakic carries both the president of hockey operations and general manager titles into 2026-27, with Makar signed through 2034-35 and Nathan MacKinnon under contract through 2030-31.
