blundluntman
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- Jul 30, 2016
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Looks like Amazon Prime is releasing something on Sakic's offer sheet escapade in 1997. Gotta say I'm pretty excited.
I wonder how interested Sakic was in joining the Rangers despite the $15 mil up front? I would believe he wanted to remain in Denver given they had some unfinished business after losing to Detroit in 96-97.Will be interesting how they stretch out a 10 minute story into a full length show. But looking forward to Sakic's comments especially with him having experience as GM now.
I wonder how interested Sakic was in joining the Rangers despite the $15 mil up front? I would believe he wanted to remain in Denver given they had some unfinished business after losing to Detroit in 96-97.
I wonder how interested Sakic was in joining the Rangers despite the $15 mil up front? I would believe he wanted to remain in Denver given they had some unfinished business after losing to Detroit in 96-97.
He also survived Graham James!I instantly assumed this would be about the Swift Current bus crash he survived. At least implemented in the documentary. The title being Saving Sakic.
Avalanche fans must have really loved Air Force One when it hit theaters!
this is funny, we’ve been hearing this story for 25 years and until just now it never clicked for me that the movie in question wasn’t con air
like every time i read or heard air force one i always pictured nic cage in a wifebeater
Avalanche fans must have really loved Air Force One when it hit theaters!
1997 was a crazy year for this. Chris Gratton got a similar signing bonus. With Sakic at least you know you had a superstar. But to leave a team of Forsberg and Roy? You've got year after year Cup contention for a long time. I get that in the summer of 1997 we didn't know the downfall the Rangers would enter, and Gretzky, Leetch and Richter seems like a good team with the addition of Sakic. But they still weren't as good as the Avs.
Unrelated, but when I walked out of theater for Superman Returns in 2006, I learned that Patrik Elias re-signed with the Devils. That movie was boring, but I can't help but smile when I'm channel surfing and see it.
The Gratton ordeal would make for a fun retrospective on its own. Tampa's murky Japanese ownership group, Lightning GM Phil Esposito trying to deal Gratton to Chicago only for the offer sheet to come through, and then Esposito trying to claim that the fax was smudged in order to buy more time to submit the Chicago deal.
I'll be curious how deep they talk about the team's finances. I'd wonder if Sakic was worried the Avs didn't have the budget for him and Forsberg long term. The Avs had already done some cost cutting after the 1996 Cup (Simon/Leschyshyn) and then traded Young/Ricci after matching the Sakic offer. The angle with the Rangers was that Dave Checketts knew how much the Avs/Nuggets owners had been losing due to their arena.
Lacroix already was angling to get Vinny Lecavalier in 1998. If I remember correctly, Lacroix wasn't exactly quiet about his intentions either. If they had gotten Lecavalier, would they have then tried to deal Sakic or Forsberg?
If I recall did Lacroix not pool all of his first round picks and offer them to Tampa for the 1st overall pick? They did want Lecavalier a lot. I think it goes to show you just how revered he was at that time.
If the Avalanche had had its way, Vinny Lecavalier would be wearing a Colorado uniform.
Because of a series of trades, the Avalanche had four first-round picks in the 1998 draft. Phil Esposito, the Lightning's general manager at the time, said Colorado tried to package two choices for Tampa Bay's No. 1 pick and the chance to pick Lecavalier.
Esposito said the Avalanche did not include center Joe Sakic as part of the deal, as was rumored. Even if it had, he said, there was no way he was giving up a chance to pick Lecavalier, the top-rated prospect.
"I was saying to them, "Look, you have to blow my socks off,' " Esposito said Thursday, recalling his conversation with Colorado general manager Pierre Lacroix. "I remember saying to one of our scouts, if they want to give us (Peter) Forsberg and Sakic and then they would have to give us money to pay them down the road because we couldn't afford to pay them anyway."
1997 was a crazy year for this. Chris Gratton got a similar signing bonus.
The Rangers began their own downfall when they exiled Mark Messier.1997 was a crazy year for this. Chris Gratton got a similar signing bonus. With Sakic at least you know you had a superstar. But to leave a team of Forsberg and Roy? You've got year after year Cup contention for a long time. I get that in the summer of 1997 we didn't know the downfall the Rangers would enter, and Gretzky, Leetch and Richter seems like a good team with the addition of Sakic. But they still weren't as good as the Avs.
Summer 1997 sucked for the Rangers. They managed poorly when they exiled Messier. They should have both re-signed Messier and signed Sakic.
The Rangers began their own downfall when they exiled Mark Messier.
Its funny, because both Vancouver and New York started a sharp decline in the summer of 1997. Vancouver narrowly missed the playoffs while New York at least made it to the semis. But the Messier thing was a mistake for both teams. The Rangers should have kept Messier and the Canucks shouldn't have signed him. Fedorov was available that summer too and the Canucks should have tried to get him to play with the disgruntled Bure and Mogilny. Can you imagine that old junior hockey line back together? I think they'd have kept both wingers happy and that would have set them up for years in the future.
Im just assuming theres no possible way either side could have predicted the harrison ford movies importance without hindsightYep. Rangers should have kept Messier and signed Sakic before the Air Force one release Date. Truth is that the Rangers wanted to exile Messier.
If it was from Brooks, it was horseshit. He was just a vehicle for the Rangers to tamper.Tough to turn down 15 million, especially in 1997 dollars. Rangers were fresh off of a Conference Final appearance, so they were more attractive without the benefit of hindsight. And if I were in my late 20s, living around NYC would be fun.
As others noted, I'm not sure Sakic had extra loyalty to Colorado at that point. Plus he already got a Cup in 1996, so I don't know if there'd be any that much "unfinished business" to be had. The money really escalated coming out of the 1995 CBA, so I think the players were understandably trying to cash in.
I'll try to dig it up, but I think I stumbled on an old NYPost article which mentioned that Sakic felt like he owed the Rangers for getting him the 1997 contract to the point where he might consider them as an unrestricted free agent destination down the line. But that might have been NYPost trash.
So I see alot of posts here about what was going on at this time. I was gonna quote them but it would have been alot so I'm gonna just post a long response here.
The Rangers had soured on Messier by 97. Post 94 and even as early as 92 Messier thought he knew more than everybody in the organization. These thoughts got bigger especially after the cup win in 94. What led the front office and ownership to not do anything about it was that he was holding up his end of the bargain in 95 and 96. By 97 this wasn't the case people talk up the 97 run but what they easily forget is that Messier was virtually invisible outside of a few games vs Florida. It was Gretzky, Leetch and Richter really leading the charge along with Tikkanen too. It was no secret that the Rangers and most of the league knew that Messier's days as an elite player were over. The only person really who didn't know this was Vancouver owner John McCaw who was out for blood after the Cancucks lost out on Gretzky the previous year.
With this all in play Neil Smith and Rangers ownership agreed to let Messier walk. It was the direction afterwards is where they didn't Smith wanted to rebuild ownership wanted to replace. Smith hated the idea of the offer sheet but ownership convinced him it was a sure thing. On top of that to say that oh why would Sakic want to leave well as most of us know the Avs were broke and Sakic had won his cup in 96. At the end of the day it is a buisiness and well there was uncertainty I'm Quebec and now uncertainty in Denver and well again as most of us know Madison Square Garden had no problem printing money and I think Sakic knew in his mind he wouldn't need to worry about pay or uncertain ownership. On top if that New York had become a desirable destination in the 90s the ownership was finally treating the players well and the city itself was on its way up. Plus Gretzky was there lethal pp.
So the big question is what if and the aftermath of it all. For the Rangers well I don't think the dark ages happen but at the same time I'm not sure they win a cup. While Sakic was an upgrade over a 36 year old Messier and Pat LaFontaine (who was ultimately brought in) the Rangers were still a bit disjointed. They had made bad trades in the 90s letting guys like Doug Weight and Mattias Norstrom go for Messier's old Edmonton buddies(I know Tikkanen came back for Weight but they could have paid less). On top of it ownership and Messier himself overvalued Alexei Kovalev who could have been moved twice for Brendan Shanahan. A Sakic and Shanahan combo would have meant a cup or 2 imo. But if we go by semi irl do the Rangers keep Richter in 98 or if in better posistion go after Cujo. With Kovalev finally being given up on in 98 but them having 2 centers in Sakic and Gretzky maybe they move him and others in a deal for guys like Bure,Fleury, or Recchi guys Gretzky asked for. ( Smith didn't want Bure because of his knees).
For Colorado I think they run into problems. For as much as people hype Forsberg, Sakic was the glue of that team. With him gone who gets the c , I doubt Forsberg maybe Foote?? Idk. I think they maybe are a playoff team but not contenders anymore. On top of all of it Lacroix was very high on Lecavalier if he really coughs up all he has draft wise for him that means no Hedjuk,Tanguay or Drury. I'd say Hedjuk was better than Lecavlier Tanguay probably not Drury definitely not. So if you take a team in the late 90s led by Forsberg and Lecavalier and put them up vs the powerhouses in the west they're not better than Detroit,Dallas or even St.Louis. Which probably means no Fleury in 99,no Bourque in 2000 and 01 and no cup in 01 either. Which means does Roy bolt in 01 as an fa, does Bourque go to Philly and get the job done in 2000, does Detroit win in 99 and cap off 3 in a row (Detroit was the Stars kryptonite) and well do these same Avs become sellers around 03 instead of contenders? All because of 7 days in the summer of 97
Didn't realize that. I do wonder if Espo would have asked for both or eitherWhy would pooling their picks for Lecavalier effect Drury or Hejduk? Both guys were selected in 1994
and the worst Southern accent in historythis is funny, we’ve been hearing this story for 25 years and until just now it never clicked for me that the movie in question wasn’t con air
like every time i read or heard air force one i always pictured nic cage in a wifebeater