{"id":596983,"date":"2026-06-12T06:54:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T06:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/596983\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T06:54:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T06:54:14","slug":"mark-kiszla-avs-championship-window-closes-when-joe-sakic-leaves-ball-arena","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/596983\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Kiszla: Avs’ championship window closes when Joe Sakic leaves Ball Arena"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Avalanche have gone back to the future, scheming to hoist the Stanley Cup again by doing it the only way this NHL franchise knows how.<\/p>\n

Let Super Joe do the heavy lifting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could panic and try to blow everything up and start all over,\u201d Joe Sakic said Thursday, vowing to run it back with a team that flopped in the playoffs, confident there\u2019s hunger to \u201ctry to bring home the Stanley Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n

How do we know the Avalanche feel the desperation that accompanies a slowly closing championship window?<\/p>\n

All you have to do is take one look at the urgency in Sakic\u2019s eyes.<\/p>\n

Less than a month from his 57th birthday, Super Joe ain\u2019t a kid anymore.<\/p>\n

That wonderful mop of hockey hair sported by the superstar who delivered Colorado its first major professional sports championship way back in 1996 is now thinning on the head of Sakic.<\/p>\n

Has it really been 25 years since the Avalanche\u2019s rock-steady captain handed the Cup to Raymond Bourque in a Denver hockey barn that rocked with joy?<\/p>\n

After moving to the team\u2019s front office, sitting at the right hand of the late, great Pierre Lacroix to learn tricks of the trade, Sakic served as Colorado\u2019s general manager for nearly a decade that was capped by winning the league championship in 2022.<\/p>\n

\"\"Colorado Avalanche general manager Joe Sakic looks on in the second half of an NBA game Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo\/David Zalubowski)<\/p>\n

After a burgundy-and-blue wagon driven by Nathan MacKinnon crashed and burned this spring in the Nevada desert, the state of shock quickly turned to a state of emergency when Executive of the Year candidate Chris MacFarland took the money and ran off to Nashville.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when Avs governor Josh Kroenke ran back the favorite play in the franchise\u2019s book. He asked Super Joe to come to the rescue, nudging Sakic out of his cushy chair as president of hockey operations and get back to the 24\/7 grind of general manager for a talented roster that has wasted chance after chance to declare itself an NHL dynasty.<\/p>\n

When I asked how much pressure was exerted on Sakic to return as\u00a0 GM, Kroenke said: \u201cI won\u2019t say I twisted his arm, but I felt very comfortable that could be a default position for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sakic is back as general manager because the Avs had no other obvious choice.<\/p>\n

While MacKinnon will be 31 years old when training camp begins and captain Gabe Landeskog is approaching 34, maybe there\u2019s an even more\u00a0serious question about how much championship life is left in this graying roster: How much time will the Avs have Super Joe as one of the league\u2019s savviest hockey architects?<\/p>\n

When I asked if he was ready to commit to another decade as the team\u2019s general manager, Super Joe looked at me as if I was crazy.<\/p>\n

\u201cTen years?\u201d Sakic said. \u201cI don\u2019t know about 10 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019d bet this encore with Sakic as GM doesn\u2019t last more than two seasons.<\/p>\n

I also strongly believe a core that has made a nasty habit of looking like world-beaters during the regular season but very vulnerable at the first sign of\u00a0playoff adversity needs to be seriously shaken from its annual spring malaise.<\/p>\n

Sakic, however, insists Jared Bednar will remain on the bench. Why?<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s the best coach for the group,\u201d Sakic said. \u201cHe\u2019s not just the coach. He\u2019s the voice of the organization \u2026 The players really believe in him, and I\u2019m going with the players.\u201d<\/p>\n

While it would be reasonable to think job one should be fixing the maddening inconsistency of Colorado\u2019s power play, Sakic has a bigger goal in mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cCale is going to finish his career here,\u201d declared Sakic, adding early negotiations with Makar\u2019s agent gives confidence there will be an agreement on an Avalanche-for-life deal at some point this summer.<\/p>\n

A contract extension could well double Makar\u2019s current annual salary of $9 million. The infusion of much-needed young talent around Makar, however, will depend in no small part on Sakic\u2019s ability to persuade his superstar defenseman to take a hometown discount.<\/p>\n

\"\"Colorado Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar (8) waits for a faceoff during the third period of Game 1 against the Los Angeles Kings on Sunday, April 19, 2026, at Ball Arena in Denver. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock)<\/p>\n

Although the Avs took 15 long days to lick their wounds after being spanked in the Western Conference finals by the Golden Knights before conducting a post-mortem with the media wretches, this press conference was strikingly different from the recent season-ender by the Nuggets.<\/p>\n

Kroenke was front and center, dominating the basketball conversation, suggesting everything was on the table for the Nuggets outside of trading perennial MVP candidate Nikola Jokic.<\/p>\n

In a conference room at the Avs\u2019 suburban training rink, Kroenke was mostly a passenger, quietly riding shotgun to Sakic, who calmly drove home the point his hockey team had a great season that ended with one bad week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While some worrywarts wring hands and whine the Kroenke family treats its hockey franchise like a redheaded stepchild, I would suggest that is clueless analysis.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have a core of Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar, led by Gabe Landeskog, and the depth we have, I think you better be pushing it and going for Cups,\u201d Kroenke said. \u201cI think going for Cups means spending as much as you can, when you can.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can blast Stan and Josh Kroenke a dozen different ways, but you\u2019ve got to respect the father-son ownership team for embracing the motto that has served the Avalanche well for three full decades:\u00a0<\/p>\n

In Super Joe we trust.<\/p>\n

Nobody in Colorado knows better how to hoist the Cup.<\/p>\n


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