Joe Sakic - Redeemed as an NHL GM?

[Avs71]

People saying it is just Sakic benefiting from MacKinnon developing, think Sakic may have had something to do with developing MacKinnon?

Today, Sakic maintains an open-door policy with MacKinnon, welcoming suggestions on everything from roster construction to breakfast menus. They also golf several times a year; Sakic is around a one handicap, according to MacKinnon. “Barely even talk about hockey,” he says. “I respond to that better than a hardass. I know where he stands. I’m not wondering what Joe is thinking.” Known for his even keel on the ice, Sakic has also helped smooth out MacKinnon’s rough edges—mostly body language that could fluster teammates when MacKinnon grew frustrated. “A good calming influence on him,” Barrie says.

Nathan MacKinnon is ready to deliver

 

[Super Hans]

trying to get some guy called oliver to play on a scoring line.

Olver*, though I think you, me and Blues fans are the only people on this planet who remember that guy.

 

[cgf]

The Duchene trade was a big part of MacKinnon taking ownership of the team and exploding.

 

[strictlyrandy]

I mean, the 1st pick was the only real thing of value in that trade. A basic quality for quantity trade that worked out better than he could have ever dreamed of.

I have him between 22-28 range.

This is very factually incorrect and incredibly ignorant.

 

[strictlyrandy]

Sakic continues to get no respect for his work. He's been fantastic as a gm.

 

[Crossfire Hurricane]

Olver*, though I think you, me and Blues fans are the only people on this planet who remember that guy.

Those Avs teams could fill a "Players you forgot existed" thread.

 

[Drij]

yeah Roy tanked that club

That's funny considering Roy was responsible for getting most of of talent on the team.

 

[Critical13]

Sakic continues to get no respect for his work. He's been fantastic as a gm.

Sakic has been good but he inherited the 2nd best player in the NHL on a sweetheart salary.

The true test will be seeing how he handles some upcoming contracts. He's got Wilson, Kerfoot, Rantanen, Kamenev, Andrighetto, Zadarov and Varlarmov all needing new deals next year.

Some of those deals will be tricky. Someone like Rantanen looks like a 10 million dollar player right now, and Zadarov will be looking in the 5-6 range.

Also curious how some of his drafts start to pan out. Makar is such a huge wildcard but there are other interesting prospects in that org. Then they have Ott's pick as well, which could be franchise changing.

I think there's a good chance he comes out with a top 5 team in a few years, but I don't think he's done enough yet to really earn being called a fantastic GM, unless you are using fantastic loosely.

 

[Steerpike]

Sakic has been good but he inherited the 2nd best player in the NHL on a sweetheart salary.

i.e. Sakic convinced the 2nd best player in the NHL to sign long term for half of what he's worth?

 

[Critical13]

i.e. Sakic convinced the 2nd best player in the NHL to sign long term for half of what he's worth?

Did he sign him? I thought he took over after that deal? If not, my bad. I still think there's more to prove in the coming year or 2.

 

[nightonthesun]

Mackinnons contract was business as usual. It was signed before he demonstrated who he truly is as a player. When assessing Sakic I think it’s moot.

 

[Steerpike]

Mackinnons contract was business as usual. It was signed before he demonstrated who he truly is as a player. When assessing Sakic I think it’s moot.

Buy low sell high.

 

[Drury_Sakic]

Only real complaint, and it is a big one honestly, this season is that he was too stupid to figure out that the team should have signed a 4th line/depth player who was solid on face-offs.... The Avs are laughably bad on face-offs. Would have been an easy fix to a problem that should have been seen from miles away.

Should have been addressed, they were terribly bad last year and are just as bad this year. Could still probably be addressed with a trade or maybe even a vet UFA signing still.

 

[hooverdam]

Only real complaint, and it is a big one honestly, this season is that he was too stupid to figure out that the team should have signed a 4th line/depth player who was solid on face-offs.... The Avs are laughably bad on face-offs. Would have been an easy fix to a problem that should have been seen from miles away.

Should have been addressed, they were terribly bad last year and are just as bad this year. Could still probably be addressed with a trade or maybe even a vet UFA signing still.

The Avs were the best team in the league at faceoffs in 16-17. That worked out well for them.

If a team has to be bad at something, I'd sure as shit rather it be faceoffs than anything else. They're inconsequential if you're a team that can establish a good forecheck, lead the way in takeaways, and transiition the puck well: all things the Avs are really good at under Bednar. It's not a concern.

 

[VictoriaJetsFan]

I never thought Sakic really deserved the criticism he received and I was right, he has built an excellent young team with more huge talent coming given the Ottawa draft pick.

 

[The Abusement Park]

Sakic has been good but he inherited the 2nd best player in the NHL on a sweetheart salary.

The true test will be seeing how he handles some upcoming contracts. He's got Wilson, Kerfoot, Rantanen, Kamenev, Andrighetto, Zadarov and Varlarmov all needing new deals next year.

Some of those deals will be tricky. Someone like Rantanen looks like a 10 million dollar player right now, and Zadarov will be looking in the 5-6 range.

Also curious how some of his drafts start to pan out. Makar is such a huge wildcard but there are other interesting prospects in that org. Then they have Ott's pick as well, which could be franchise changing.

I think there's a good chance he comes out with a top 5 team in a few years, but I don't think he's done enough yet to really earn being called a fantastic GM, unless you are using fantastic loosely.

Sakic and Bednar really deserve a lot of the credit for grooming Mack into the player he is today.

Zadorov will sign at most in the 4 range. He hasn't shown enough offensively to get 5-6.

 

[Allan92]

A year ago I felt bad for Sakic, I wasn't shitting all over him or anything but I thought it was sad that his legacy was becoming tarnished with the franchise.

Safe to say he took my pity and shipped it off on his way to the playoffs.

He's shut a lot of people up and his team building skill is really beginning to look special

 

[Lonewolfe2015]

A GM is not a good GM due to 1 good trade. I guess you can give credit to him to not sign the guys he let go, but they are all pretty bad players that he likely signed himself!

How many GMs out there actually let go all the dead weight on their rosters? Most seem to keep one or more players around as pets.

Furthermore, Sakic has made very shrewd moves since he inherited negotiating from Roy leaving. Signing Kerfoot, Calvert, Cole, Francouz and Bernier. Then trading Duchene for a haul, acquiring Grubauer cheap and not making any panic trades resulting in culture changes like moving Landeskog.

The Avs have the best prospect pool they've ever had. Makar, Kaut, Bowers, Timmins, Kamenev, Greer, etc.

Sakic may not be Stevie Y as a GM. But he's doing it his own way and so far so good.

 

[Hasbro]

Probably a combination of being better than reputed, a lot of OJT and not having Roy in the process.

 

[Empoleon8771]

Sakic redeemed himself a lot with the Duchene trade, a lot of people thought Sakic was being stupid for holding on to Duchene for so long and wasn't going to get what he wanted. Then he got a crazy good haul for Duchene, and that's with ignoring that Ottawa's 1st is likely going to be very high.

I still don't think he's that great of a GM, I think people here overreact to single season results and make absurd proclamations based on them. Dorion went from an amazing GM to a terrible GM because of 1 season on here. He's not like Chiarelli bad, who has been making mostly bad moves for years now, but I still have him below average.

 

[The Abusement Park]

Sakic redeemed himself a lot with the Duchene trade, a lot of people thought Sakic was being stupid for holding on to Duchene for so long and wasn't going to get what he wanted. Then he got a crazy good haul for Duchene, and that's with ignoring that Ottawa's 1st is likely going to be very high.

I still don't think he's that great of a GM, I think people here overreact to single season results and make absurd proclamations based on them. Dorion went from an amazing GM to a terrible GM because of 1 season on here. He's not like Chiarelli bad, who has been making mostly bad moves for years now, but I still have him below average.

I think what were seeing is Sakic growing as a GM and learning from all those rookie mistakes he and Roy made early on. He's done well on almost all of his trades bar the trades for Berra and Stuart. He's done well on contracts the last few seasons bar the Cole and Colborne signings and set the team up insanely well for the future. I definitely think he deserved some flack early on in his reign as GM, but you can really see he's learned how to be an effective GM in this league and is doing good things now.

 

[Voight]

The Duchene trade, RoR trade, signing Mackinnon to 6.3 per year alone gets him out of the bottom 10. Easily

AT the time tho the MackInnon deal wasn't anything special, he had yet to surpass his career high of 63 points.

Now it looks great, but hindsight is everything.

Looks like he was just a guy who needed the keys to the team in order to breakout.

 

[cgf]

AT the time tho the MackInnon deal wasn't anything special, he had yet to surpass his career high of 63 points.

Now it looks great, but hindsight is everything.

Looks like he was just a guy who needed the keys to the team in order to breakout.

Looks like that, and it certainly was a big factor in his breakout...but there was a lot of progress that lead him to that point. As I doubt we'd have seen the same explosion from if he had been given the keys right after his rookie year, ya know? But in year 3 he flashed this level out of the gates before his injury, even if his wrist/hand and lesser supporting cast, ultimately prevented him from exceeding those rookie year totals. And in year 4 he was already carrying the team...it was just an extraordinarily shitty team.

So it's not entirely hindsight, as the progress was there to see. That's why -- despite a camp on our board which was hyper-critical of MacK to bolster the case for Mikko to eventually surpass him as our franchise player -- in main board threads about how MacK peaked as a rookie, most avs fans either vehemently disagreed or turned to ferocious sarcasm...like our hero, NEB.

So it's not like Joe just gave him a contract for no reason and got lucky that it turned out to be a good idea.

 

[Hasbro]

Looks like that, and it certainly was a big factor in his breakout...but there was a lot of progress that lead him to that point. As I doubt we'd have seen the same explosion from if he had been given the keys right after his rookie year, ya know? But in year 3 he flashed this level out of the gates before his injury, even if his wrist/hand and lesser supporting cast, ultimately prevented him from exceeding those rookie year totals. And in year 4 he was already carrying the team...it was just an extraordinarily ****ty team.

So it's not entirely hindsight, as the progress was there to see. That's why -- despite a camp on our board which was hyper-critical of MacK to bolster the case for Mikko to eventually surpass him as our franchise player -- in main board threads about how MacK peaked as a rookie, most avs fans either vehemently disagreed or turned to ferocious sarcasm...like our hero, NEB.

So it's not like Joe just gave him a contract for no reason and got lucky that it turned out to be a good idea.

Probably also helped that the Duchene trade stopped trying to split the four best forwards between 2 lines and made the Avs put all their eggs in one basket.

 

[Suxnet]

I'd say he's up there with Chayka as one of the best GMs in the league.