DENVER -- If 1995 served as a benchmark in the history of the Colorado Avalanche franchise geographically, it's also the year one of the most defining players in franchise history literally entered the scene.
That's the year Nathan MacKinnon was born.
The Quebec Nordiques relocated to Denver and became the Avalanche in 1995, winning a Stanley Cup in their first season behind Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg and Patrick Roy. The trio was named to the NHL's 100 Greatest Players of All Time list in 2017. The talent that has come through Denver includes Ray Bourque, Teemu Selanne and Hall of Famers like Rob Blake and Paul Kariya. Milan Hejduk, who isn't in the Hall of Fame, was a longtime face of the franchise.
There were lean years, of course. Suffering through that hardship set the stage for them to draft Gabriel Landeskog, Cale Makar, Mikko Rantanen and MacKinnon. As with any top prospects, there was hope they would parlay their promise into winning at least one Stanley Cup, and perhaps be included in the all-time great discussion among Avs players.
Landeskog is worthy of making the all-time Avalanche team. Makar is a two-time Norris Trophy winner who is already the greatest defenseman in franchise history. Rantanen is another all-time great, whose legacy lasted nine-plus seasons before he was traded in 2024-25.
Then there's MacKinnon. There's no question that he's one of the best players to have donned a burgundy and blue sweater.
But will he finish his career as the greatest player in Avalanche history -- or does he already hold that title?
"There's a lot of records that Joe Sakic has with the Avs that we didn't think would be broken," said former Avalanche player John-Michael Liles, an analyst on the team's broadcast. "And now all of a sudden, you see Nathan MacKinnon start to break some of these records or creep up on some of these records."
Though the notion has been raised in recent seasons, MacKinnon has rejected it, even though he set a new single-season franchise record for the most points en route to winning the Hart Memorial Trophy and the Ted Lindsay Award in 2024. It was the third time an Avalanche player won the league's MVP, and the second time an Avs player captured the Lindsay, which is the "most outstanding player" as voted on by NHL players.
MacKinnon was only the second Avs player to win both awards in the same season -- with Sakic being the first (2001).
That's why the idea won't die. It's also why the debate elicits nuanced answers from those who intimately know the Avalanche, along with the player who is at the center of this discussion.
"Obviously, this comes along with a lot of hard work, team success and having players like Cale around me. That helps a lot," MacKinnon said. "I don't know. That's not what gets me out of bed every day. I'm just trying to get better every day. Always tweaking things. That's what is the big motivator for me."
COMPARED WITH SOME NHL TEAMS, the Avs are newbies. They are not an Original Six franchise whose all-time greats live forever in black-and-white photos, or an endless sea of banners, with some of them predating World War II. The Avs' franchise history goes back to 1972 (with the Nordiques in the WHA), and the franchise's NHL tenure began in 1979.
Any discussion about franchise greats should include Hall of Famers Michel Goulet and Peter Stastny. Neither played for the Avs, but Stastny is third all time in franchise points and Goulet is fourth. Sakic spent his first seven seasons in Quebec, and Forsberg played his rookie campaign there before the franchise moved to Denver.
Photos and video clips of the Nordiques exist. The Avs have paid homage to that past by wearing their retro Nordiques sweaters, which even have a pull on fans who did not see them live in their lifetime.
Of course, nostalgia will always play a role in these debates. The Avs just have their own version of nostalgia that's more representative of how the NHL grew its geographic and cultural footprint throughout the 1990s.
Every Avs game has been televised. A majority of the fans that go to Ball Arena can look at the rafters and remember seeing all three of their titles, in addition to the retired numbers belonging to the players who won them. And the three most prominent of those players are still highly visible.
Sakic is the team president who can be seen walking the halls of the arena. Forsberg has an Instagram following of more than 113,000. Roy, who once coached the Avs, was coaching the New York Islanders until he was dismissed in April.
"It's a pretty young organization obviously, so, the history isn't necessarily like Montreal, Toronto and Boston," said Landeskog, who is sixth all time among Avs players in games played. "But in terms of an organization? There are guys like that -- like Nate, like Joe, like Peter, like Cale -- that are essentially putting a stamp on the organization for a long time."
SAKIC, FORSBERG AND ROY are often considered to be the starting point for discussing the best player in franchise history, but Sakic is mentioned the most.
He has the goals, the assists, the points, the longevity and the individual awards. He also won a pair of Stanley Cups as a player (1996, 2001) and one more as an executive (2022). The famed No. 19 is hanging from the rafters.
"It's why I'm glad I am seeing it firsthand with this generation, and with Nate being a part of the Avalanche," Sakic said. "I love seeing it. I'm lucky. It's like my generation has great timing. We got to see older guys in our generation, and now we get to watch this generation of players. It's hard to compare the prior generation to our generation to this generation. The game is just a different game now."
Liles was teammates with Sakic, and played long enough to face MacKinnon as an opponent. He played with Sakic for four-plus seasons and was in the league through MacKinnon's first four NHL campaigns.
"Joe never cheated the game ever, but he was so good offensively. You knew he was always going to do something with the puck. He had this way of seeing the game two or three steps ahead of everyone," Liles said. "He was so good, so smart. ... It was special to look back on it, and now I see Nathan MacKinnon and what he's doing. The scary thing with Nate is I still think there's another level for him to reach. I feel like the last four years, he's had another level going in every year."
Nathan MacKinnon notches his 1,100th point on his 2nd goal of the game
MacKinnon acknowledges that his career got off to a slow start when compared with other top-tier prospects. He finished with 63, 38, 52 and 53 points in his first four campaigns -- before scoring 97 in his fifth. He scored 99, 93 and 88 in his next three full seasons.
His first 100-point campaign came in his age-27 season (2022-23), when he finished with 111. Sakic had four seasons of more than 100 points by that stage of his career.
But since his first 100-point season, MacKinnon has turned into one of the best players in the league, perennially challenging the likes of Nikita Kucherov and Connor McDavid for MVP. Along the way, he eclipsed the 1,000-point mark for his career, and now has 1,141 through 949 games.
Sakic is the Avalanche/Nordiques' all-time leader, with 1,641 points. He is also the all-time leader in goals (625), assists (1,016) and games played (1,378), while MacKinnon is third in goals (419), second in assists (722) and fourth in games played (949).
Sakic finished with six seasons of more than 100 points, the most in franchise history. MacKinnon has four, which is second. Sakic leads the franchise with the most 20-goal seasons (17) and the most 30-goal seasons (nine). MacKinnon is tied for second for the most 20-goal seasons (11) and is one 30-goal season away from tying Sakic for first. Sakic is also the franchise all-time leader in game-winning goals (86), while MacKinnon is second (76).
"Everybody evolves, and I think for him, the biggest thing is every season he continues to evolve and he pushes other guys to evolve as well," Makar said of MacKinnon. "We're always finding new things and new ways to improve and get better as a team and as individuals. For him, he's an intense individual and it makes it fun at times when everyone gets pushed to be better."
And for what it's worth, Colorado's team president is bullish on Colorado's star center.
"He's going to blow away all those numbers," Sakic said. "He is the most exciting player to ever wear an Avs jersey."
MACKINNON HAS BEEN DESCRIBED as a hockey automaton, because of how much he knows about the sport, and how much he still wants to learn. It's also the way he pushes himself to get better -- with the notion he'll never be fully satisfied.
Those who are good enough to become the best of the best can do things that many of us can't even begin to fathom.
Until they turn 30, that is. That has become the age at which some form of vulnerability presents itself in hockey players. It can be a sharp decline, or one that's more gradual. But the reality is that Father Time eventually comes for everyone.
MacKinnon turns 31 in September. The aggressive approach he takes to nutrition and training could be the difference in his aging curve. Not that it's foreign for players to do well into their 30s, like MacKinnon's close friend and training partner Sidney Crosby.
"He takes care of his body and I just feel like there's another level that we may see from MacKinnon," Liles said. "I watch him on a nightly basis, and I still think that the best is yet to come."
But the shift toward providing younger players with more opportunities over the past decade changes what veterans must do to remain a key player on their roster.
"He's continuously invested in himself, in his body, in his craft and how he takes care of himself," Landeskog said. "Listen, he spends a lot of time, money and effort on making sure he gives himself the best chance. I don't think that's a secret by now. You can see the trajectory that he's been on. It's not about points or how many goals he scores or how many individual awards he might be up for.
"He wants to continuously impact the game and keep giving us a chance to win and be a factor everywhere. That's a huge part of what makes him, him."
The expectation is that MacKinnon will continue to impact games in a way that allows the Avs to win, while also attaining the individual accomplishments that will draw him closer to Sakic on the all-time lists.
Individual stats are one way to measure careers; another is Stanley Cups. MacKinnon is one behind Sakic as a player, which some would point to as a differentiator.
Others would argue that the team accomplishment (or lack thereof) doesn't necessarily keep an individual player behind another.
Sakic is in the latter group.
"I think he's done it all already," Sakic said. "Hopefully, he wins another Cup because that means I get another Cup! But so does our organization and our city.
"But I don't think he needs to do all that. Just watch him play. People pay money to watch this guy play every single night and what he does -- the rest of us, we wish we could have a chance to do that. He's a unicorn and he can do things that we all dream about doing on the ice."
But what about MacKinnon? Has it started to dawn on him that words like "legacy" can be used to describe what he has done, and what he could continue to accomplish before he eventually retires?
"Honestly, I don't think about it much," MacKinnon said. "At the end of the day, we're all going to be forgotten. I mean, it's true. I'm not going to worry about legacy and all that stuff."