‘Saving Sakic’ now available, tells story of how Harrison Ford helped keep center in Denver

The film opens with a narrated highlight package of Joe Sakic's greatness with the Colorado Avalanche. 

Two minutes in, Charlie Lyons sits down in front of the camera.

"Well, that's all terrific," Lyons says as he leans forward in his chair. "Of course, it almost didn't happen."

The next 45 minutes of "Saving Sakic," an original hockey documentary from NHL Productions, dives into the story of how the former Avalanche captain and current executive almost left the team in 1997 to go to the New York Rangers, and how a confluence of events over the course of one week in August of 1997, including help from Harrison Ford, stopped it from happening.

"Saving Sakic" will is available for Prime members in Canada starting Tuesday and will be on ESPN+ for subscribers in the United States starting April 17. 

The film is directed by Jay Nelson with executive producers Steve Mayer, Ross Bernard and Craig Axelrod for NHL Productions and Gary Cohen for Triple Threat TV.

It features commentary from Lyons, the former Avalanche chairman and CEO who was blindsided by the Rangers attempt to lure Sakic to New York.

They signed him on Aug. 7, 1997, to a three-year, $21 million offer sheet that featured $15 million up front. The Avalanche had seven days to match. 

"Initially, I was not that inclined to participate because when you go through an event like that and everything that accompanies it there's a tendency when it's done just to go back to work and forget about it," Lyons said. "In my view, nearly 30 years had passed, your recollection is hazy, and I was very concerned about a piece that was too earnest about saving hockey. I just wouldn't participate in something like that. But I also remember that there was a lot of humor in all of it. At the end of the day, when you look at everything that goes on in the world today, there's nothing like a little humor to put things into perspective. When the film made the turn to becoming a lighter piece that didn't take itself too seriously that's when I was happy to get involved. And then when I did get involved it reignited my passion for sports."

There's Dave Checketts, the former Rangers executive who boldly tried to pry Sakic away from Colorado because he knew without a fortunate turn it wouldn't have the money to keep him and that the Rangers needed a replacement for Mark Messier, who left to sign with the Vancouver Canucks.

"It's a story that from the New York side somebody needed to tell," Checketts said. "I felt if we could somehow pry Joe Sakic away from the Avalanche and put him with our team, if we could get him we have a potential Stanley Cup champion on our hands. I felt it was worth it and I felt that was the part of the story that needed to be told. History will say that everything we did just enabled Charlie to put his franchise on solid ground because people in Denver just didn't like being pushed around by New York."

The film features commentary from Sakic, Denver sports writer Mark Kizsla, who bet Checketts that Sakic would never leave, former Denver mayor Wellington Webb, former Rangers general manager Neil Smith, and, yes, Ford, the legendary actor whose movie "Air Force One," released on July 25, 1997, paved the way for the Avalanche to have enough money to match the offer sheet to keep Sakic.

"This is much better than I thought it would be," Ford says in the movie.

Clips from "Air Force One" are spread throughout the documentary. Ford and Lyons are seen sitting down together at the beginning and talking near the end about the impact the blockbuster movie had on hockey in Denver.

Without it, Sakic would have been a Ranger. He instead won the Stanley Cup a second time in as a player in Denver, in 2001. He won it again in 2022 as an executive with a team he helped build. His first Cup title with the Avalanche came in 1996. 

"I think it's extremely well done and a very frank conversation between Charlie and I on each side of what we were thinking and what happened and the way the press reacted," Checketts said. "I made Charlie really mad when I bet that Denver writer that we would get him, the dinner with Mark Kiszla. I admit that probably was a step too far, but I wouldn't change what happened."