Hall of Famer Sakic was pure gold on the ice
To mark Canada’s 150th birthday, we are counting down to Canada Day with profiles of 150 noteworthy British Columbians.
The son of immigrants from Yugoslavia, Joe Sakic was born in Burnaby. Croatian was his tongue until he reached kindergarten. One language in which he was fluent, however, was hockey. It is said that he knew what he wanted to do after seeing his first NHL game in 1973, aged 4, a match between the Vancouver Canucks and the Atlanta Flames.
Today there’s a boulevard named after him in his hometown, Joe Sakic Way, and he’s had the rare satisfaction of bringing the Stanley Cup back to celebrate with family, friends and loyal fans. But it didn’t come easily — or maybe it did. When Sakic began playing in the Burnaby Minor Hockey Association with the B.C. Selects, he had to adapt for his small size, so he studied Wayne Gretzky who compensated for lack of bulk by developing skills to a near supernatural level. The strategy paid big dividends. Sakic scored 83 goals in 80 games. At 16, he was playing major junior.
The good news was that playing for the Swift Current Broncos, he was named Rookie of the Year and scored 133 points. The bad news was that one winter night the team bus hit black ice and four teammates were killed in the wreck. Sakic responded by winning recognition as the league’s most valuable player and was Canadian player of the year.
One of those rarities, a professional athlete who spent his entire career with the same club, Sakic captained the Quebec Nordiques then stayed with the team when it relocated to Denver as the Colorado Avalanche. He scored 120 points that year, led his team to its first Stanley Cup championship, and was named most valuable player.
He has won gold medals at the World Junior Championships, the World Championships, and the Olympic Games, as well as the Stanley Cup. He scored more than 50 goals in a season five times, twice in the NHL, had six 100-point seasons, and was an NHL all-star 13 times. He retired in 2009, his number retired with him, and in 2012 he entered the Hockey Hall of Fame along with The Russian Rocket, Pavel Bure.
Once described as the most underrated player in the NHL, his Hall of Fame citation simply stated that let his dedication and skill speak for him and is remembered as the humble but outstanding leader of the whole franchise with which he is now an executive.