Joe Sakic is the Colorado Avalanche’s general manager, and there is no plan for that to change anytime soon.
Sakic is committed to the role in a full-time capacity and there has been no search for a replacement, team sources confirmed. There is no set timeline for how long Sakic will be the club’s GM, but he has been “reinvigorated” after the stunning loss to the Vegas Golden Knights in the Western Conference Final, a source said.
Chris MacFarland was promoted to general manager in July 2022, while Sakic was bumped up to president of hockey operations. MacFarland left the organization in early June to become president and GM of the Nashville Predators.
Sakic moved back into the GM role at that time, but there wasn’t clarity on how long. At the time, the timeline was at least through the NHL Draft and free agency.
A search for an eventual replacement was planned, but multiple sources said Sakic wanted to commit to being the full-time GM again. Sakic, a franchise legend and two-time Stanley Cup winner as a player, was the club’s GM from 2014-22, a period that included the club’s third championship in 2022.
Sakic earned a reputation for being a shrewd negotiator with other NHL GMs during his first tenure. The trades he made to build an outer core of players around Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, Mikko Rantanen and Gabe Landeskog — which included adding Devon Toews, Nazem Kadri and Artturi Lehkonen, among others — made the Avs a true force of nature in the 2021-22 season.
MacFarland spent years being mentored by Sakic and took a similarly aggressive approach during his four seasons as GM. He was a finalist for GM of the year last season after overhauling the Avs roster during the 2024-25 season, which helped Colorado set a franchise record with 121 points in 2025-26.
Ironically, Sakic’s first two trades of his second tenure were with MacFarland and the Predators. and Jack Drury to Nashville, and then Valeri Nichushkin to Columbus in Sakic’s first few weeks back in the role.
The biggest move of the Sakic 2.0 era was an eight-year, $163.2 million contract for Makar, which currently stands as the largest deal in NHL history. While the current Avs’ group fancies itself as a Stanley Cup contender, one of the biggest challenges for Sakic and the Avs’ brain trust is going to be retooling this aging roster yet again around MacKinnon, Makar and Landeskog in the near future.
