Yeah, that's right, I remember Sakic being a little bit left out of that conversation circa 1996. It does seem odd. I think the problem maybe was that he was left behind a bit in his earlier years in Quebec, and it gave the (incorrect) impression that he wasn't quite an elite player. Media and so on tends to go for the new, young hype!
Sakic and Forsberg started 1996-97 at a ridiculous pace, with Sakic scoring 33 points as of November 14th, when other than Forsberg (30 points), no one else had more than 25.
But he ran so cold the rest of the season, having just the 35th best points-per-game production (0.93) the rest of the way that he maybe appropriately did get lost in the post-Lemieux discussion. The names who were hottest in the league down this stretch? Lemieux (of course), joined by the usual suspects: Forsberg, Jagr, Kariya, LeClair, Lindros, Messier, Selanne.
Sakic went a surprising minus-18 in this stretch too, in a season where Colorado won the President’s Trophy.
I think if Sakic continues his level of play in 1996, or at least doesn’t
kinda tank the rest of the way, it probably doesn’t take until 2001 for him to solidify himself in the best player debate. Or if the situation was reversed, and he got red hot to close the season, his name might have been tossed around more than it was.