Joe Sakic vows to ‘look at all options,’ including trades, to improve Avs

Colorado Avalanche president and GM Joe Sakic doesn’t have a lot of salary cap space to work with this offseason.

According to PuckPedia, the Avs are about $3 million under the NHL’s cap right now.

Team owner Josh Kroenke and Sakic met with the media on Thursday at the end-of-season press conference and that topic came up in a roundabout way.

While Sakic made it clear his biggest priority is extending the contract of superstar defenseman Cale Makar, other moves need to come.

That could involve a trade — or two or three.

Specifically, when asked about aging players like Valeri Nichushkin, Artturi Lehkonen, Devon Toews and Josh Manson, Sakic said the goal is for the team to improve this summer.

“If we feel it’s going to help us or make us better, we’re going to look at all options to try and get better. We don’t have the picks right now… we have a few prospects that are going to compete,” Joe Sakic said.

The cupboard is dry of draft picks as former GM Chris MacFarland traded a slew of them to add veterans the last two seasons in a Stanley Cup window. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out, as the Avalanche lost to Dallas in Round 1 last year and were swept by Vegas in the Western Conference Final this season.

Could a deal be in the works with a household name? Not for a Nathan MacKinnon, Makar or Gabriel Landeskog, but perhaps some others mentioned above.

“For the most part, unless we’re looking at trades, which we will, to see what can make us better. We’re going to look at that and try and do something,” Sakic said.

It’s not the most committal answer from Joe Sakic, but it also wasn’t a hard no. Nichushkin is due more than $6 million each of the next four seasons. Getting him off the books would be huge. Lehkonen is scheduled to make $4.5 million, while a player like Ross Colton is under contract for $4 million.

It’d make sense for the Avalanche to perhaps try to trade any of those three, with other options as well. Sakic voiced a championship is still the goal.

“We’re going to do whatever we can,” Joe Sakic said. “We want to make sure this team has the right pieces to try and compete for the Cup.”

How the next few months shake out will be fascinating to watch. A seismic move likely isn’t coming, but a deal involving a decently big name still could be.

Right now the objective for Joe Sakic is to figure out how to get the Avs over the hump and win the fourth championship in franchise history.

Related

Avalanche name new head coach for AHL affiliate EaglesFive most important Avalanche games during the 2026-27 seasonNHL drops schedule for 2026-27 Avalanche seasonFirst Avalanche game of 2026-27 season announced, it’s in SeptemberAvs make three more depth signings, including forward with 477 NHL gamesAvalanche sign depth defenseman from the Flyers