Pierre Lacroix Steps Down After 18 Season With the Colorado Avalanche

For the past 18 seasons Pierre Lacroix has been in the front office of the Colorado Avalanche. In that time He made deals to bring Patrick Roy, Rob Blake and Ray Bourque to the Avalanche and two Stanley Cup titles, not a bad run. On Friday Lacroix stepped down as president of the team and will hand the keys to a couple of familiar faces, but he will stay on as an advisor.

The new president of the Colorado Avalanche is Josh Kroenke, the son of the owner of the Nuggets, Avalanche, St. Louis Rams and a majority of the English football club Arsenal. Josh has always been known as a basketball guy, but now he will have to become a hockey guy. He has already started by promoting former team captain Joe Sakic to executive vice-president of hockey operations. That is a smart move by Kroenke. Sakic will be a very hands on kind of guy and will have a lot of weight in the room when they hire the next coach. Sakic has said he wants a leader and someone who can nurture the young core of Avalanche players.

I don’t think they are that far away, I know the season didn’t go well, but when you look at the big picture the Avalanche have a lot going their way. The core of their players are under 23 and they have the first pick in this year’s draft. The Avalanche should take the young blue-liner Seth Jones with that pick. It won’t be long before they are making a run into the playoffs.