The American Rocky Mountains had only just fallen into darkness when Joe Sakic walked through the door of the large glass conference room located in the team’s offices at Ball Arena, the club’s home since 1999.
Wearing a long beige coat, the Avalanche president of hockey operations sits comfortably for the scheduled interview with the author of these lines, a little over an hour before the start of a game against the Los Angeles Kings.
Even before the first question, Sakic gets news from Quebec, in particular from his favorite restaurants, Chez Guido and Café de la Paix, both of which have been closed for several years already.
The Last of the Mohicans
When it is pointed out to him that he stands the test of time better at the Avalanche than his favorite tables of the time, the former captain of the Blues shrugs his shoulders, giving a broad smile, a friendly face that the Quebecers have not forgotten, even thirty years after his departure.
At the conclusion of his 13 seasons as an Avalanche player, Sakic became a special advisor and governor of the club, before being promoted to vice-president of hockey operations and then general manager.
In the summer of 2022, after winning the Stanley Cup, “Mr. Avalanche” handed over his position as GM to Chris MacFarland. Here he is now at the head of hockey operations for the team for which he put on skates until 2009.
A family story
Mitchell, his 29-year-old eldest son, became the club’s assistant video coach a few years ago, further proof that the Sakic family and the Avalanche are as one, like salt and pepper in the middle of a table.
In Denver, the 55-year-old man is one of the rare survivors of the 1995 edition of the Nordiques. The Croatian-born ex-hockey player and his wife Debbie live in the same house in Cherry Hills, where their twins, Chase and Kamryn, born in 2000, grew up.
There is also the therapist, Matt Sokolowski, who has not forgotten the pain and frustration of his colleagues in charge of the equipment and trainers, the two René, Lavigueur and Lacasse and the physiotherapist Jacques Lavergne, left behind in the sale of the Quebec team, but Joe Sakic is the headliner of the defunct Nordiques in Denver.
He hardly plays anymore
Joe Sakic in the fleurdelisé uniform. (Patrice Laroche/Archives Le Soleil)
Still convinced that Marcel Aubut did everything to avoid selling the Nordiques, Sakic still enjoys immense popularity, like the time when he burned the Western Junior League with the Swift Current Broncos.
The former number 19 has aged, but his passion for hockey has never waned. “I hardly play anymore even for fun, it’s too difficult! he smiled. I prefer to stay healthy for golf!”
Proof of his unyielding popularity is the impressive number of blue Nordic jerseys, with his name embroidered behind them, in the arena, a mark of respect that warms his heart…
L’igloo vend encore
Joe Sakic on the many Nordiques jerseys at the Ball Arena in Denver. (Mikaël Lalancette, Le Soleil)
“It’s a nice nod to Quebec, where it all started,” said Sakic. It’s a mark of respect for the origins of the Avalanche. The Nordiques jerseys are still selling very well, they are so beautiful!”
In the club’s souvenir shop at the Ball Arena, the jackets, wool sweaters and kangaroos bearing the image of the Blues are numerous and varied. Fleur de lys blue appears to be almost as popular as in the Quebec capital.
Downtown, it’s not uncommon for 5280 Custom Framing shop owner Jarrod J. Perrott to showcase memorabilia tied to the Avalanche’s storied past, with the sport accounting for nearly 30 40% of its turnover.
-Jarrod J. Perrott of the framing shop 5280 Custom Framing. (Mikaël Lalancette/Le Soleil)
“Nostalgia sells a lot,” attests the man who had just framed a sweater of the old number 19 a few weeks before our visit. I think people appreciate knowing where the Avalanche came from. I don’t know much about Quebec, but we have a lot of respect for what happened there before.”
Impressive popularity
A few stone’s throws away, the manager of Sportsfan, Elliott Sweazey, even takes pride in placing products derived from the former Quebec team in the entrance of the souvenir shop he has managed for four years.
Nordiques memorabilia items prominently displayed at the entrance to the Denver Sportsfan store. (Mikaël Lalancette/Le Soleil)
A sports city
However, there is no shortage of options in this city crazy about its sports clubs, the Avalanche competing with a major baseball team, a National Football League team and a basketball team.
That’s without counting an MLS soccer club and the University of Denver Pioneers, two-time reigning champions of American college hockey (NCAA)!
The retro Fleurdelisés sweater sells so well at the 16th Street Mall store that the man born in 1995, the year the Avalanche was created, would like to see the city’s hockey team still use it any further.
“Unfortunately, I heard rumors that Quebec City would get a team again so…” said the manager with an almost disappointed look.
On the shelves of his store, the space reserved for Nordiques caps, toques and sweaters is so impressive that one wonders if the beloved club of Quebecers is not on the eve of coming back to life.
Elliott Sweazey, from the Sportsfan store in Denver, takes pride in showcasing Quebec Nordiques souvenir items. (Mikaël Lalancette, Le Soleil)
Only the Broncos manage to make its cash register ring even louder than the Avalanche. The most popular player among store customers? You guessed it, it’s Joe Sakic.
The latter has not set foot in Quebec since 2013, the year of his son Chase’s participation in the International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament, an “unforgettable” week during which he played tourist guide with the Thunderbirds of Colorado.
“I showed them the city’s must-see attractions, the best places to eat, where we had lived…” says the native of Burnaby, British Columbia, who, incidentally, has never seen the Videotron Center.
“I heard it was magnificent,” he remarks before asking what happened to the old Colosseum.
What would he say to his many admirers in Quebec who have lost faith in ever seeing the Nordiques again, not what’s left of them in Denver, but the real ones, with whom he played for seven years.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I know the passion of the people of Quebec well enough to say that the fans would really be there if we gave them another team one day,” concludes Sakic.
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