Due to his wife, the all-time player for the Denver Broncos announced his retirement from the NHL on…
Aaron Patrick has accepted the Stanley Cup from NHL commissioner Gary Bettman twice while wearing a Colorado Avalanche sweater, with the captain’s “C” emblazoned near his shoulder on both occasions.
The franchise’s face is currently leaving.Aaron close associates have confirmed that he will declare his retirement at a press conference on Thursday.
Aaron triumphantly lifted the most renowned trophy in professional sports in Miami in 1996. There were several reasons why it was significant, but the primary one was that it was Denver’s first major league title.
In Denver in 2001, Sakic skillfully and swiftly passed the Cup to seasoned defenseman Ray Bourque, who had to wait years to feel the victorious moment and touch the trophy with his tears and sweat.
Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky said of Sakic, “He’ll go down as one of the best to ever play the game.”
Sakic’s No. 19 will be retired for the upcoming season to go up in the Pepsi Center rafters with those of Bourque (77) and Patrick Roy (33).
In his first year of eligibility, he is expected to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto in 2012. With 625 goals scored, he ranks 14th in NHL history for goal scoring, and with 1,641 points, he ranks eighth for point production.
There is only defenseman Adam Foote left from the Nordiques that left Quebec City in 1995 to settle in Denver, his tenure interrupted by a two-plus season stint with the Columbus Blue Jackets.
At times, Roy—possibly the greatest “money” goalie of all time—and Peter Forsberg—who could control games with jaw-dropping strength and skill—were as important to the Avs as or even more so than Sakic.
Still, Sakic was without a doubt the team’s face; he leaves the NHL at age 40 after 20 seasons.
Former Avs forward Ian Laperriere said, “The game just lost one of the best ambassadors that ever hit the rink.” “Playing with a player and a classy guy like Joe was an honor and a privilege.”
“The only player I kind of wanted to be like was Joe Sakic, that clutch performer that everyone looked to and was able to score goals that win games, and overall, the respect he has,” stated Ryan Getzlaf, a star for the Anaheim Ducks.
“Quoteless” praiseA success story in North America, the man with one of the best wrist shots in the history of the game.
His mother, Slavica, and father, Marijan, had traveled independently from their home country to Canada, where they got married and began a family.
Sakic was well known for being a little child with few words when he started school in the Vancouver area, and those few words were in Croatian.
Sakic remembered, “I was just starting to learn English, and everybody knew it.”
He started playing at the neighborhood rink, a dilapidated facility known as 4 Rinks at the time, and soon realized that hockey was a universal language, similar to Esperanto in Canada.
“It was the most awful
