Sakic was drafted 15th overall by the Quebec Nordiques in the 1987 NHL Entry Draft. Rather than make the immediate jump, he told the Nordiques management he would prefer to spend the 1987-88 season in Swift Current to prepare for the NHL. He made his NHL debut on October 6, 1988, against the Hartford Whalers and registered an assist. His first NHL goal came two days later against goaltender Sean Burke of the New Jersey Devils. During the season, he wore #88 because his preferred number, #19 was already taken by a teammate, Alain Cote. While considered a front-runner for the Calder Memorial Trophy as rookie of the year due to his rapid scoring pace, an ankle injury that forced him to miss 10 games in December and the resulting scoring slump helped quash any hopes of winning the award. He would finish his rookie season with 62 points in 70 games. In 1989-90, his second NHL season, Sakic was able to switch his number back to his familiar #19 (Alain Cote had retired over the summer), and scored 102 points, which was ninth overall in the league. At the start of the next season, 1990-91, he was named co-captain along with Steven Finn (Sakic was captain for home games, Finn for away games) and again passed the 100 point mark, improving to 109 points and sixth overall in the league, but would slip during 1991-92 to 94 points, having missed 11 games. Early on in the season, Sakic showed some of his leadership qualities, even while Mike Hough was serving as captain, as he stood firm in the Eric Lindros holdout issue. With Lindros holding out against the Nordiques, who were one of the worst teams in league, Sakic commented, "We only want players here who have the passion to play the game. I'm tired of hearing that name. He's not here and there are a lot of others in this locker room who really care about the game." Lindros was traded a year later, ending the situation and bringing in a number of quality players, which vastly improved the Nordiques. During their first four seasons with Joe Sakic, the Nordiques finished last place in the Adams Division and last in the entire league for three straight years, from 1989 to 1991. Starting with the 1992-93 season, Sakic became the sole captain of the franchise. Under his leadership, the Nordiques made the playoffs for the first time in six years and set a franchise record for wins and points in the process (since broken by the 2000-01 Colorado Avalanche team). Sakic reached the 100-point plateau, the third time he did so in five years, by scoring 48 goals and 105 points in the regular season, and added another six points in the playoffs. In the shortened 1994-95, after the 1994-95 NHL lockout, Sakic was eight points behind Jaromir Jagr for the scoring title with a fourth-place finish, and helped the Nordiques win the division title, their first since the 1985-86 season.

Answer this question "How long did he stayed with the team ?" by extracting the answer from the text above.
would prefer to spend the 1987-88 season in Swift Current