Avalanche matched offer sheet to Sakic by Rangers thanks to hit film

Legendary hockey reporter Stan Fischler writes a scrapbook each week for NHL.com. Fischler, also known as "The Hockey Maven," shares his insight and wit with readers every Wednesday. The offer sheet tendered to Leo Carlsson by the Philadelphia Flyers and matched by the Anaheim Ducks inspires a look back to when the New York Rangers submitted one to Joe Sakic, which was matched by the Colorado Avalanche.

Offer sheets were in the spotlight this offseason with the Philadelphia Flyers signing 21-year-old restricted free agent Leo Carlsson to a five-year, $90 million offer sheet (average annual value of $18 million) that would eventually be matched by the Anaheim Ducks.  

The Utah Mammoth also matched the one-year, $4.775 million contract tendered to center Barrett Hayton by the New Jersey Devils.

But none of the intrigue caused by offer sheets this offseason could come close to matching the commotion of when the New York Rangers tendered a three-year, $21 million contract to Colorado Avalanche captain Joe Sakic, which was also matched.

"I was stunned," Sakic told reporters after signing. "And pretty happy about it."

Sakic was a superstar whose NHL career high of 120 points (51 goals, 69 assists) in the 1995-96 regular season and 34 points (18 goals, 16 assists) in the Stanley Cup Playoffs helped the Avalanche win the Stanley Cup for the first time in Colorado/Quebec Nordiques history. He had 74 points (22 goals, 52 assists) in 65 games the following season and 25 (eight goals, 17 assists) in 17 playoff games, when the Avalanche's bid for a repeat was ended with a six-game loss to the Detroit Red Wings in the 1997 Western Conference Final. 

Rangers general manager Neil Smith was the first to admit a sense of doubt and desperation associated with the gambit.

"We -- at the Rangers -- had just lost Mark Messier to Vancouver and we needed to replace him," Smith said in an email. "But how do you replace a Messier? Sakic was a natural choice since Joe was considered one of the best players in the NHL." 

According to Smith, the offer sheet emphatically was pushed by Dave Checketts, then-president and CEO of Madison Square Garden Corp. 

"Checketts knew that the NBA Denver Nuggets -- with the same owner as the Avalanche -- were bleeding money and also in financial peril," Smith said. "Dave believed that if we frontloaded a huge number to Sakic, the Avs couldn't possibly match, and we therefore would have Joe."

Smith, who helped build the Rangers team that won the Stanley Cup in 1994, believed that strength through center might help produce another title, specifically with a one-two combination of Sakic and Wayne Gretzky. He also confided he planned to keep the offer sheet a secret.

"We initiated it through Sakic's agent and weren't dealing with anyone on the Avs side," he said.

If the deal was to be consummated, the Rangers would have had to relinquish their next five first-round picks in the NHL Draft to Colorado. All things considered, it seemed like an open-netter for the Blueshirts, although Smith quietly was confident that it would fail.

"I told Dave that it wouldn't work," Smith said. "I said that Colorado MUST match, that they could not let Joe Sakic walk. But I also couldn't help envisioning the possibility that if the Avs did refuse to match, the Rangers would not only have Sakic, but Wayne Gretzky, Brian Leetch, Mike Richter and Adam Graves and we could be back in a contending position."

The Sakic offer was also abetted by the fact that the Avalanche lost $8 million in 1996 and that the franchise also needed cash to invest in a new ice palace destined to replace 22-year-old McNichols Sports Arena in Denver.

Despite the fuss and fanfare, the Rangers never enjoyed the enormously gifted Sakic in a blue jersey for a totally unexpected reason: Hollywood. 

A new hit movie would cause the bid to evaporate like smoke rings at a campfire. 

Back then, the Avalanche were owned by COMSAT, a film firm that divested the hockey franchise to Ascent, its entertainment branch, which also was bleeding red ink. The only way Ascent could fiscally rebound would be with a critically -- and publicly -- acclaimed box office winner. And by sheer coincidence, filmmakers were completing a movie called "Air Force One" starring Harrison Ford.

The script focused on terrorists hijacking the President's plane and the valiant rescue attempt that ensued. It was a smash hit, a bonanza for Ascent and, in turn, the Avalanche.

In its first week, the movie made $37.1 million. In time it would earn $315.1 million, although it was originally budgeted for an estimated $85 million. 

"The big money profits being made by 'Air Force One' was how the Avs owners were able to match our offer and keep Sakic," Smith said.

Sakic finished his career in Colorado, retiring in 2009 after playing 1,378 games for the Avalanche, more than anyone in franchise history. He won his second Stanley Cup championship in 2001, is first in goals (625), assists (1,016) and points (1,641), and was named one of the 100 Greatest Players as part of NHL's Centennial celebration in 2017

As Avalanche general manager, Sakic earned another Stanley Cup ring in 2022. As for the offer sheet, he said, "It was a win-win for me either way."

There was another winner: Denver. The windfall profits from "Air Force One" enabled financing for the new arena that became Pepsi Center and is now Ball Arena.

"Had 'Air Force One' not been a hit, who knows what would've happened -- perhaps a fifth Rangers Stanley Cup," wrote Sean McCaffrey in "Tricks of the Trade, a Century-Long Journey Through Every Trade in Rangers History."

Given a "do over," would Smith have done anything different?

"Just as I told Dave Checketts then about the Sakic offer sheet," he said, "I would tell him again now, 'it will never work.' NHL teams cannot let another team take their best player.

"Teams MUST match!"

The Ducks and Mammoth obviously agree.