Avalanche move one step closer to naming Joe Sakic’s successor

The Colorado Avalanche moved one step closer to naming Joe Sakic’s successor on Tuesday.

The organization announced that former Avs Stanley Cup winner Andrew Cogliano will be taking over as an Assistant GM.

The move does not come as a surprise. Earlier this summer, I was one of the first to jump on the Cogs bandwagon, proclaiming that he would become the organization’s next GM following Chris MacFarland’s departure.

While the club did the best thing in having Joe Sakic take over the reins for now, naming Cogliano an assistant makes all the sense in the world.

Sakic praised Cogliano, as noted in these comments quoted by NHL.com.

“We’re extremely lucky to have ‘Cogs’ in the front office, and he’s been a key member of our staff since he decided to retire as a player,” said Sakic. “We’re excited to give him more responsibility and make more meaningful contributions toward building and sustaining championship-contending teams in all levels of our organization. ‘Cogs’ is great communicator, and that skill will be invaluable for our program. This is a well-deserved promotion.” 

Cogs moved to the Avalanche’s front office following his retirement from the NHL. He’d been a special advisor to the GM, a role in which he was sort of a jack-of-all-trades in the front office. Make no mistake. This wasn’t some sort of glorified internship. It was the sort of role a high-level exec takes on as a type of on-the-job training aimed at eventually taking over the company’s top management job.

And so, this is where this move is heading. Cogliano will now have a full season under Sakic, during which he’ll likely handle day-to-day management duties, potentially even being a fly on the wall during trade and contract negotiations.

Cogliano, for his part, made his feelings clear in this statement:

“I’m grateful and thrilled for this opportunity to take on a more advanced position with the Avalanche,” said Cogliano. “Since I retired, the Kroenke family, Joe and the entire organization – past and present – have been great to me and my family with the transition. This second career has gone as well as I could have hoped when I decided it was time to move on from playing the game, and I’m excited to keep working toward our goal of winning another Stanley Cup.”  

And if there’s anyone who could do a good job of eventually taking over for Sakic in the GM chair, it’s Cogliano.

Avalanche’s promotion of Cogliano is similar to Canucks’ succession plan

The Avalanche’s move on Tuesday is reminiscent of what the Vancouver Canucks did with Ryan Johnson earlier this summer.

When the Canucks fired Patrik Allvin following last season, the club began its search for a new GM. But the main candidate was always Johnson, a former NHLer and Canuck himself. He moved up from the GM role with the Canucks’ AHL affiliate in Abbotsford and an assistant GM role with the Canucks to the main job under President of Hockey Operations (POHO) Jim Rutherford.

Eventually, Johnson will take over for Rutherford when the senior exec retires. The Canucks’ succession plan envisions Rutherford remaining as an elder statesman with the organization before leaving hockey for good.

That’s what the Avalanche seem to be heading towards.

The plan will be for Cogliano to get his feet wet. Then, when the time is right, Sakic will retreat to the POHO role once again and leave Cogliano the day-to-day running of the business. Then, Cogliano could take over for Sakic once the former Avalanche great is ready to call it quits and officially retire.

The entire path is a long way away. But there is a path and an extremely long runway. Considering that Cogliano is 39 (full disclosure, I’m way older than he is), he could easily have another 30 years in an executive role and still be highly productive.

So, it seems that if everything goes well, Cogs and Sakic could be the team running the team for the next couple of decades, at least.

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