Joe Sakic indicates a “run it back” plan for the Avalanche, endorsing coach Jared Bednar and their MacKinnon-led core

DENVER (AP) - Joe Sakic said the Colorado Avalanche will look to keep the same core together rather than treat last spring’s playoff disappointment as the end of a successful era. In comments carried in advance of the offseason, the Avalanche president of hockey operations endorsed head coach Jared Bednar and emphasized that his confidence starts with the roster that produced a dominant regular season. The framing matters in Colorado because the team’s 2025-26 story was not defined by its final result, it was defined by its pace, structure, and output for most of the year. The Avalanche finished with 121 points, a franchise best, and captured the Presidents’ Trophy. In other words, they weren’t merely consistent, they were among the NHL’s most complete teams over a full schedule. Sakic’s endorsement of Bednar is also notable for what it suggests about how Colorado views its playoff week. The Avalanche were swept by the Vegas Golden Knights in the Western Conference Final, a short series that leaves little room for adjustments once a matchup tightens. Even so, Sakic’s message leaned toward treating the result as an outlier relative to what the team built from October through April. Central to Sakic’s plan is the group at the heart of the Avalanche’s identity. He tied the organization’s next step to the same leaders who powered Colorado’s regular-season surge, including Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar on the ice and captain Gabriel Landeskog in the leadership role. The phrase “run it back” effectively means the club believes its ceiling is still tied to that foundation, not to a radical reset. Sakic also positioned his decision as a front-office choice about where to invest organizational effort. Rather than re-litigating coaching or roster design after one short run, he suggested that continuity is the best way to protect what already works. For a team that found so much success in the standings, the logic is straightforward: keep building around the system and players that generated the highest regular-season output in franchise history. The obvious caveat is that the playoffs are not the regular season, and the Avalanche’s spring exit exposed how quickly an elite team can become vulnerable when a series turns against its preferences. A Presidents’ Trophy does not automatically translate to a championship, and Colorado now has another offseason window to address whatever elements were disrupted by Vegas. Sakic’s comments do not eliminate the possibility of tweaks, but they do indicate the coaching staff and core roster are not on the chopping block. What to watch next is whether Colorado’s offseason moves, if any, are targeted and measured, or whether the organization leans toward subtle retooling around the edges. If Sakic’s continuity message holds, expect the Avalanche to treat the next season as the continuation of a proven approach, with the goal of turning regular-season dominance into deeper playoff resilience against the kind of opponent that forced their game to shrink in the Western Conference Final.

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