Leadership Quote by Joe Sakic

"You need a lot of leaders, but a hockey team needs a voice, not only in the community, but more importantly between the coaching staff and the players. There are always ups and downs in a season; the captain is the guy players look to in those situations"

Joe Sakic, Athlete

About this Quote

Sakic is pushing back on the corporate poster idea that every player should be a “leader,” without denying the locker room’s need for shared accountability. His point is bluntly practical: leadership in hockey is less a vibe than a job description. You can have an army of respected veterans, but the team still needs one person empowered to translate, absorb, and sometimes soften the friction between two groups with different incentives-the coaching staff tasked with systems and results, and the players living inside the grind, pain, and momentum of an 82-game season.

The subtext is about authority without theatrics. A captain isn’t merely the best player or the loudest personality; he’s an institutional buffer. “Voice” implies representation: someone who can carry a room’s temperature to the bench, and carry the coach’s demands back to the room in a way that preserves buy-in. Sakic, famously understated, is also implicitly critiquing performative leadership-the kind that shows up in speeches and slogans but disappears when a team hits a losing streak, a bad call, or the quiet panic of an injury pileup.

Context matters: hockey culture prizes hierarchy, routine, and emotional control. “Ups and downs” is code for the season’s constant micro-crises, when a team’s identity can splinter into blame, freelancing, or passive resentment. The captain’s real power is steadiness and trust: being the person players look at to decide whether today is a spiral or just Tuesday. That’s not inspirational branding; it’s crisis management in skates.

Quote Details

Topic	Leadership
Source	Help us find the source
Cite

More Quotes by Joe Add to List

About the Author

Joe Sakic (born July 7, 1969) is a Athlete from Canada.

23 more quotes available

View Profile

Similar Quotes

"As a captain, I think it's important that the players really know who you are and what you stand for, what your beliefs are, and to be consistent in those if things are going good or things are going bad"

Mark Messier, Athlete

"Anyway, I've never been captain in 16 years in the NHL. But that didn't stop me being a leader in my own way"

Guy Lafleur, Athlete

"My job is to suggest and ratify and use any expertise that I might have gained over the 23 years in professional hockey to make our game a better game"

Bobby Hull, Athlete

"A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be"

Wayne Gretzky, Athlete

"I watch a lot of hockey. There are some good hockey players and there are some awfully stupid hockey players"

Ted Lindsay, Athlete

"The biggest thing we get out of it is seeing the kids smile. And hopefully we will also see that the lessons we're teaching - not only the fundamentals of hockey, but also the life values - are sinking in"

Bobby Orr, Athlete

"Leadership is diving for a loose ball, getting the crowd involved, getting other players involved. It's being able to take it as well as dish it out. That's the only way you're going to get respect from the players"

Larry Bird, Coach

Larry Bird

"We feel that, with Sidney, we have a great opportunity over the next few years to put a great team on the ice. We're prepared to lose some money along the way. Eventually we're going to need some help"

Mario Lemieux, Athlete

"If you're going to play hockey now, you have to be able to play. If you have the ability to fight and play, you're an unbelievable commodity. But if you can only fight, there might be six of those guys left in the league, and I can guarantee they're going fast"

Brett Hull, Athlete

"The team should have implicit confidence in the captain's decisions"

Lord Mountbatten, Soldier

Lord Mountbatten

"Figure skaters have awful perceptions of hockey players"

Kristi Yamaguchi, Athlete

"You can lead a team in a lot of different ways. It can be talking to somebody who is down or, during the course of a game, looking to penetrate and then dropping the ball off to someone else for an easy bucket"

Bill Cartwright, Athlete

"Each group and each youngster is different. As a leader or coach, you get to know what they need"

Mike Krzyzewski, Coach

"Since the beginning, I always loved the game. When you grow up in Montreal, one day you want to be a professional hockey player. When I was six or seven, I knew that was what I wanted"

Mario Lemieux, Athlete

"Leadership is getting players to believe in you. If you tell a teammate you're ready to play as tough as you're able to, you'd better go out there and do it. Players will see right through a phony. And they can tell when you're not giving it all you've got"

Larry Bird, Coach

Larry Bird

"Nobody gives a crap about hockey down here - nobody. I coach kids' hockey down here and you can start to see the disinterest in the game here with the kids"

Bobby Hull, Athlete

"Sport fosters many things that are good; teamwork and leadership"

Daley Thompson, Athlete

Daley Thompson

"People on the streets are ready for hockey"

Eric Lindros, Athlete

Eric Lindros

"My message to the kids and our fans is hockey's a great game. There's a lot of hockey being played at all levels. Get involved, do it. We will be back and we will be back better than ever and hopefully as soon as possible. Don't give up on the game. It's too good"

Gary Bettman, Businessman

"I like ice hockey, but it's a frustrating game to watch. It's hard to keep your eyes on both the puck and the players and too much time passes between scoring in hockey. There are usually more fights than there are points"

Andy Rooney, Journalist

Andy Rooney