The Colorado Avalanche would have been a much different franchise had they lost Joe Sakic to the New York Rangers.
Fans of the Colorado Avalanche know a lot about the team’s history of star and Hall of Fame players. Even when they were the Quebec Nordiques, there were notable names with the franchise. What some might not know is that, in the 1997 offseason, history was going to be made one way or another.
Joe Sakic, a top-2 player in team history, was a restricted free agent during that offseason. He was sent an offer sheet from the New York Rangers, and it appeared as if the Avalanche were about to lose him. Suddenly, that ended up not being the case. However, it’s perhaps the most unique story of any free agent story out there.
The company Ascent Entertainment, who actually owned the team at the time, had a movie in the works featuring Harrison Ford (yes, that Harrison Ford—the Harrison Ford who starred in Star Wars). The movie, Air Force One, was co-financed by Ascent Entertainment and the fate of Sakic’s Avalanche tenure ended up depending on the success of that movie.
Luckily, or perhaps as planned, the movie generated $315 million at the worldwide box office, including just under $173 million at the United States box office. The Avalanche had just seven days to match the $21 million offer sheet, which included $15 million upfront. The timing just couldn't have been better.
You see, things were very difference back when this took place. The NHL didn’t even have a salary cap until 2006, much later than the whole Sakic-Ford-Rangers thing happened. Even free agency in general was relatively new for the NHL. It only began in 1995. Any player who was to play for another team at any point in their career would have had to be traded or released and free to sign elsewhere.
Sakic’s Avalanche had won the Stanley Cup after the 1995-96 season, so as you can imagine, he was one of the top players when it came to the new free agency period, and though he was restricted, that didn’t guarantee that he would be able to stay in Colorado.
The Avalanche, with Sakic leading the way, won their second Stanley Cup in 2000-01, and though they had stars Patrick Roy and Peter Forsberg, No. 19’s 54 goals and 64 assists led the way with 118 points. That production was by far the best on the team that season.
The Rangers had Wayne Gretzky at the tail end of his career and pairing Sakic with the greatest player in league history would have been a cool thing to witness. Thankfully, the movie that starred Harrison Ford saved Avalanche fans from having to witness such a gut wrenching reality.
Without Sakic, I don’t think that the Avalanche would have won their second Stanley Cup in 2000-01. It would have taken a huge signing to replace Sakic, but if they had the money for that “huge signing,” then it ultimately would have been used on their captain. Paying homage to the documentary “Saving Sakic,” it’s safe to say that that’s what Ford did. He also saved the Avalanche from suffering a huge loss.
At the end of the day, there was no replacing Sakic. The Avalanche got bailed out by a movie’s success, and there’s absolutely no shame in that. Avalanche fans thank Harrison Ford for his indirect contribution to the organization that changed things forever.
