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'The Touch' Take a trip through this magical mystery tour with Colorado Avalanche GM Pierre Lacroix and enjoy the ride. 1995-96 Coming off the best record in the NHL the year before, but an embarrassing first-round loss in the playoffs to the eighth-seeded New York Rangers, Lacroix says there was some luck in having Claude Lemieux, Sandis Ozolinsh and Patrick Roy fall into his lap during this season so the former Nordiques could become the first franchise in NHL history to move from one city and capture the Stanley Cup in another. "You dream about situations that allow you to do some of the things that happened to us that year," Lacroix recalled. "If Wendel Clark isn't a holdout, we don't do the trade with the Devils for Claude Lemieux. If San Jose doesn't have a struggling start, they don't want to trade Ozolinsh for Owen Nolan. And if not for Patrick Roy having a blowout with his coach in Montreal, we would not be talking about him. "Three times in 60 days we have the chance to do these things." Dream come true? No, it's being in the right place at the right time -- like Joe Sakic in the slot or Peter Forsberg around the net. Lacroix saw the signs of a promising team come together when the Nordiques breezed to the best record in the Eastern Conference in 1994-95, only to lose to the Rangers in the first round. "I had a job to do, whether we played in Quebec City or Flin Flon," Lacroix laughs. Most people don't know this, but the first player Lacroix tried to acquire was Ozolinsh. But former Sharks GM Dean Lombardi would not settle for anyone less than Nolan in a deal. "I had tried to get Nolan three years earlier when Pierre Page was the general manager in Quebec," Lombardi recalls. "But all Pierre Page and later Pierre Lacroix would offer was a package of prospects. I didn't just come in off the turnip truck, so I turned them down." But when the Sharks got off to a bad start in 1995-96, Lacroix called Lombardi once again. "I told him this was a one-time offer and he had 24 hours to think about it. I told him I would give him Nolan for Ozolinsh." That's exactly how Lombardi remembers it, too. "I took 23 hours and 30 minutes before I called him back," said Lombardi, now a scout for the Philadelphia Flyers.
That deal and the trade Lacroix made for Roy are perfect examples of the kind of depth the Avalanche had built, largely because Lacroix had the courage to make the trades. "Pierre could see that Adam Deadmarsh was coming into his own and he could put him into Nolan's spot in the lineup and not lose any strength," Lombardi says. Since Lacroix had previously been Roy's agent, Canadiens GM Rejean Houle knew where he could find a quick and assertive trading partner when Patrick walked off the Montreal bench and told then-owner Ronald Corey that he would never play another game for coach Mario Tremblay. The Avalanche were 16-7-4 with Stephane Fiset and Thibault in goal. But Lacroix knew that tandem could hardly match up to Roy's acrobatics in the playoffs. "If we were still in Quebec, we could never have gotten Patrick," Lacroix admits. "When I got home that night and saw the red light flashing on my answering machine and heard Rejean Houle's voice on the other end, I knew I couldn't give the Canadiens a chance to change their minds about trading the best goalie in the game. I knew I could part with Thibault. I knew the Canadiens wouldn't trade Patrick to anyone in the Eastern Conference. Most of all, I knew I had to have him." No hesitation. No fear. 1999-2000 The 1995-96 season was the second of nine consecutive seasons that the Avalanche finished first in their division. So, even though the costs of running a successful franchise, Lacroix continued to filter in and out parts while building on that core of Sakic, Roy, Forsberg and replacing Ozolinsh and Lemieux with Ray Bourque in a trade and Adam Deadmarsh, Milan Hejduk, Chris Drury and Alex Tanguay through the Entry Draft. The acquisition of Bourque and veteran Dave Andreychuk for forward Brian Rolston and prospects Martin Grenier, Sammy Pahlsson and a first-round pick represented yet another steal for Lacroix -- and clearly made up for a calculated risk of bringing on former Calgary star Theo Fleury one year earlier with Chris Dingman, for Rene Corbet, Wade Belak and Robyn Regehr. The Bourque deal, in fact, shows you the masterstroke of Lacroix's genius. In reality, Lacroix had been on the case for three years, even if neither Bourque nor Bruins GM Harry Sinden dreamed of a trade that long ago.
The dilemma? Bourque was very sensitive about how Boston fans perceived him and any request he might have had to be traded from the franchise he loved to get one last chance to go to another team and realize his dream of winning a Stanley Cup. Interestingly, Bourque consulted with Red Wings defenseman Chris Chelios, who went from Chicago to Detroit just one year earlier, before Bourque went public with his trade request in March of 2000. In reality, Lacroix made an impassioned plea on Bourque's behalf at the general manager's meetings in December of 1999. "At that time Harry told me he couldn't do it to Ray," Lacroix says, referring to asking Bourque to leave Boston after 20 seasons. "I told Harry that we can't let such a great player retire -- and that I had more prospects than anyone to offer him. 'Don't let anything happen without talking to me first.'" When Sinden finally came around to Lacroix's way of thinking at the GMs meetings in mid-February, Colorado still wasn't mentioned in the trade rumors that included the Flyers, Red Wings, Blues and Sharks. In fact, while rumors out of Philadelphia insisted that it was a done deal that Bourque was going to join the Flyers, Lacroix had already consummated the deal to bring the defenseman to Denver.
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