Joe Sakic award received Lady Byng Memorial Trophy
In the 1996–97 season, Sakic only played in 65 games due to a lacerated calf, yet still managed to score 74 points as the Avalanche earned their first Presidents' Trophy and third straight division title. He had another great playoff season with eight goals and 17 assists, and took the Avalanche all the way to the conference finals, where they eventually lost to the Detroit Red Wings in six games. As a free agent during the summer of 1997, Sakic signed a three-year, $21 million offer sheet with the New York Rangers as a restricted free agent. Under the collective bargaining agreement at the time, the Avalanche had one week to match the Rangers' offer or let go of Sakic in exchange for five first-round draft picks as compensation. While it seemed as if the Avs could not afford to keep Sakic as they had already committed large amounts of salary to Peter Forsberg and Patrick Roy, an unlikely lifeline would appear in the form of the movie Air Force One, produced by Avalanche owners COMSAT and a blockbuster hit that summer. Its profits enabled Colorado to match the offer, which instigated a salary raise for many NHL players.Injuries would again limit Sakic's playing time in the 1997–98 season. While playing in his first Olympics with Team Canada, Sakic hurt his knee and was forced to miss 18 games with the Avalanche. In the 64 games he did play in, he still scored 63 points, enough to earn him his seventh All-Star appearance. He finally rebounded from his injury problems in the 1998–99 season, finishing fifth in the league in scoring with 41 goals and 96 points in only 73 games. He led the Avalanche all the way to within one game of the Stanley Cup Finals, where they lost to the eventual champion Dallas Stars. After the season ended, Sakic was ranked number 94 on The Hockey News' list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players.During the 1999–2000 season, Sakic reached several career milestones. Injuries limited him to only 60 games, but he still managed to lead the team in scoring with 81 points. On December 27, 1999, against the St. Louis Blues, Sakic earned an assist to become the 56th player in NHL history to reach 1,000 career points. Later in the season, on March 23, 2000, he scored a hat trick against the Phoenix Coyotes, and became the 59th player to score 400 career goals. It also gave him 1,049 points with the Quebec/Colorado franchise, passing Peter Šťastný as the all-time leader on the team.Sakic eclipsed the 100 point mark again in 2000–01, finishing with 118 along with a career-best 54 goals, both being second-best in the league. He won the Hart Memorial Trophy, the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy and the Lester B. Pearson Award (the latter presented to him by former Nordiques mentor Peter Šťastný), while also being a finalist for the Frank J. Selke Trophy. He led the Avalanche to their second Stanley Cup championship, defeating the defending title holders New Jersey Devils in seven games. Memorably, after receiving the Cup from the NHL commissioner, Sakic broke with tradition by not hoisting it first as most captains do, instead passing the Cup straight to Ray Bourque, a player who had waited a record-breaking 22 seasons to win the Stanley Cup.Sakic led the Avalanche in scoring again in the 2001–02 season, finishing sixth in the league with 79 points. On March 9, 2002, he played in his 1,000th career game. The Avalanche once again reached the Western Conference Finals, but lost to the eventual Cup-winning Detroit Red Wings. The following year, Sakic appeared in only 58 games and finished with just 58 points. He rebounded the following year, finishing third in the league with 87 points. It also marked the first time since the 1993–94 season that his team did not win the division title, which was won by the Vancouver Canucks.
received an award given an award won an award received a prize awarded with