Joseph Steven Sakic (; born July 7, 1969) is a Canadian professional ice hockey executive and former player. He played his entire 21-year National Hockey League (NHL) career, which lasted from 1988 to 2009, with the Quebec Nordiques/Colorado Avalanche franchise. Named captain of the team in 1992 (after serving as a co-captain in 1990–91), 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 play in 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, being named the most valuable player of the 1996 playoffs, and honoured as the MVP of the NHL in 2001 by the hockey writers and his fellow players. He is one of six players to participate in the first two of the team's Stanley Cup victories, and won a third Stanley Cup 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 a 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, scored 50 goals twice and earning at least 100 points in six different seasons. His 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, he 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 most valuable player. He represented the team 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 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.
Following the end of his playing career, Sakic continued with the Avalanche organization in a management capacity, first serving as executive advisor and alternate governor from 2011 to 2013. He 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 he was being promoted to president of hockey operations.
Early life
Sakic was born in Burnaby, British Columbia, to Marijan and Slavica Šakić (originally Šakić, ), immigrants from Croatia. Growing up in Burnaby, he did not learn to speak English well 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, he 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 in Burnaby, Sakic was referenced as a new Wayne Gretzky in the making. He scored 83 goals and 156 points in 80 games for Burnaby while attending school at Burnaby North Secondary. Soon after, he was added to the Lethbridge Broncos of the Western Hockey League (WHL) for the last part of the 1985–86 season.