Breaking: Joe Sakic replaced as GM in Colorado, elevated to new position
Just a couple of weeks after winning the Stanley Cup and years of building and developing a powerhouse team, Joe Sakic is no longer the GM of the Colorado Avalanche. Elliotte Friedman has reported that Joe Sakic will now hold the role of President of Hockey Operations while former Assistant General Manager Chris MacFarland will be the new GM of the Avs.
In his tenure as Avs GM, Sakic was able to build a monster through the draft, selecting the likes of Cale Makar, Bowen Byram, Alex Newhook and others while also giving players such as Nazem Kadri, Valeri Nichushkin and Andre Burakovsky fresh starts on a new team. He also managed to bring in Devon Toews, Josh Manson and Darcy Kuemper without mortgaging the farm system entirely. Sakic is a true hockey mind and will likely still be involved in hockey decisions going forward when it comes to roster, but will have a much broader reach throughout the rest of the organization.
Chris MacFarland has been the Avs' assistant GM since May of 2015 and will now be tasked with trying to take the Avs back to the cup final next season to repeat. Of course, that begins with attempting to re-sign Nazem Kadri and/or Valeri Nichushkin among others. MacFarland had garnered interest from other teams around the league, but the Avs did not want to lose him.
By promoting him to General Manager, it assures that MacFarland will not be leaving any time soon and now the Avs have two of the smartest hockey minds leading their front office in the hopes of a repeat.
