The Colorado Avalanche will be letting general manager Chris MacFarland leave for a division rival in the Nashville Predators. At the end of the day—well, just early-afternoon central and just prior to noon Mountain Time, it was announced that MacFarland has agreed to take on a more advanced role with Nashville.
With that news comes other news. It’s like a domino effect: While MacFarland bounces from Colorado to Nashville, the Avalanche are naming one of their Hall of Fame players, Joe Sakic, as their general manager to replace MacFarland.
It’s funny because MacFarland took a promotion in 2022 to become the general manager while Sakic had another job lined up with the organization: to become the President of Hockey Operations. Now, he gets to resume in a position he had four years ago. It’s like a perfect match.
Instead of bringing in a new, fresh voice, like there had been talk about regarding head coach Jared Bednar and David Carle, who is the head coach at Denver University (DU), the Avalanche choose to stay comfortable with someone they know very, very well. It’s a smart move.
The players and coaches all know and love Sakic, and he’s proven to be a good piece to their staff. Sakic has also had some great success as part of the draft decision making, selecting Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, among others. So, I can see him having even more success in the future.
The great thing about this move is that, to me, the Avalanche were so comfortable with Sakic’s return as geneeral manager that it would be shocking if he’s not in that role for years to come at this point. In fact, that’s exactly what Avalanche President Josh Kroenke said in a statement following today’s moves.
A statement from Josh Kroenke - he says Sakic will be in the GM role "for the foreseeable future" pic.twitter.com/sJD1DmJOkz
— Jesse Montano (@jessemontano_) June 2, 2026
It’s got to feel good for Sakic to have that trust from the organization. It’s also got to feel incredible for MacFarland, whose resumé speaks for itself. Congratulations to him. I hope he does well for Nashville, though not too well.
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