Former Avalanche captain Joe Sakic was named Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations on May 10, 2013 and begins his third season of overseeing all hockey-related decisions for the club. Sakic added the title of General Manager during the summer of 2014.

The Avalanche’s .616 winning percentage over the past two years ranks fourth in the Western Conference behind Anaheim (.686%), St. Louis (.671%) and Chicago (.637%). In Sakic’s first season in this role, the Avalanche tied a franchise record with 52 wins and won the 2013-14 Central Division championship.

The 2015 offseason saw the Avalanche acquire and sign Carl Soderberg, bring in six players via trade with Buffalo, sign unrestricted free agents Francois Beauchemin and Blake Comeau and select Mikko Rantanen with the 10th overall pick in the NHL Draft.

Sakic’s first move as executive vice president was to name Patrick Roy as Head Coach/Vice President of Hockey Operations on May 23, 2013. A month later, Sakic announced Nathan MacKinnon as the first overall pick at the 2013 NHL Draft. Roy went on to win the Jack Adams Award as the coach of the year, while MacKinnon went on to be the recipient of the Calder Memorial Trophy as the league’s top rookie. The Avs won a total of three trophies at the 2014 NHL Awards, matching Boston for the most of any team.

In just his first nine months on the job, Sakic announced long-term contract extensions for Matt Duchene, Gabriel Landeskog and Semyon Varlamov, locking in the core of the Avalanche through at least the 2018-19 season.

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