Pierre Lacroix, the longtime Avalanche general manager who assembled two Stanley Cup-winning teams in Colorado, was posthumously elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame as a team builder Wednesday.
Lacroix, who died from complications of COVID-19 in 2020, was president and GM of the Avalanche from 1994 to 2006, and he remained president until 2013. He oversaw the franchise’s relocation from Quebec City at the beginning of his tenure, then shepherded the organization to its first two championships in 1996 and 2001. The Avs won nine consecutive division titles and appeared in the Western Conference Finals six times under Lacroix, one of the signature hockey architects of the pre-salary cap era.
During the debut 1995-96 season that eventually ended with a Stanley Cup title, he engineered the famous trade that brought goaltender Patrick Roy to Denver from Montreal. Roy, one of the greatest goalies in NHL history and a 2006 Hall of Fame inductee, spent the last seven-plus years of his playing career in Colorado. He won the 2001 Conn Smythe trophy and later coached the Avalanche from 2013 to ’16. Lacroix sent Jocelyn Thibault, Martin Ručinský and Andrei Kovalenko to the Canadiens and also acquired Mike Keane in the trade, which is considered one of the most lopsided deals in league history.
Lacroix was involved in numerous other critical junctures in the 28-year existence of the Avalanche. He traded for franchise cornerstones Ray Bourque and Rob Blake to form the 2001 Cup-winning team. And in 1997, he matched a New York Rangers offer sheet that restricted free agent Joe Sakic had signed eight days earlier, narrowly keeping Sakic in Colorado for the rest of his illustrious career. Sakic went on to become the Avalanche’s general manager and now president of hockey operations.
Sakic was appointed to the Hockey Hall of Fame selection committee this January, replacing the retiring Bobby Clarke as one of the executives responsible for determining inductees.
Center Pierre Turgeon, who spent the last two seasons of his 19-year career with the Avalanche, was also honored as part of the 2023 inductee class announced Wednesday.
