Joe Sakic always has a seat reserved at this Ivy League college

Pat Salvas is a big Joe Sakic fan. A really, really, really big Joe Sakic fan. He’s such a big Joe Sakic fan that the Avalanche legend and general manager has a free seat waiting for him at every Dartmouth College hockey game, home and road.

Salvas, 33, the associate director of varsity communications at Dartmouth, grew up in New Hampshire, the son of a big Montreal Canadiens fan. Having a rebellious streak at a young age, Salvas took the contrarian route, being a fan of the rival Quebec Nordiques instead. It wasn’t just a passing fancy, though.

Salvas really did become a big fan of the Nordiques, and Sakic was far and away his favorite player. When Dartmouth came to Denver last year to play in a tournament that included the University of Denver, Salvas never did get a chance to meet his hero, so after that he started leaving a seat for him anywhere Dartmouth plays. At first, he included some nuts-and-bolts statistics about Super Joe’s career under the name on the seat pass, but now it’s grown into a thing of its own.

At a recent game, for instance, Salvas paid homage to Sakic by writing “9(!) teams passed on Mikko Rantanen, but not Super Joe!” Even when he went to a friend’s recent wedding, Salvas left a seat for Joe, like this:

“I want Joe to know this is just a joke, that it’s in honor of him and me being such a fan. It’s not an obligation for him,” Salvas told BSN Denver Thursday, with a laugh. “But, yeah, he’s got a seat anytime he wants one.”

So far, Sakic has not taken Salvas up on the offers. But you never know. Sakic does his fair share of scouting college players, and the Avs have had players from Dartmouth before (David Jones being the most prominent). Sakic is not a social media guy, either. He does not have any Twitter or Facebook accounts, and doesn’t talk to the media all that much.

While at a recent U.S. National Development Team function, Salvas ran into former Av Dan Hinote, who works for the development team now. Hinote passed along Salvas’ permanent invitation on a text, and Sakic, Salvas said, responded with something to the effect of “Neat. Hey, maybe he can get me a discount to Dartmouth for one of my kids.”

Other than that, that’s the closest Salvas has come to hearing from the man himself.

Salvas and his wife had their first child last year, a boy, and his wife had to tell him “No, we’re not naming the baby ‘Joe Sakic.'” But they did name him Blake, in honor of another favorite of his, Rob Blake. No problem if he wants a seat at a Dartmouth game, too.

But Sakic still gets the first seat of honor. How could he resist, with homage like this?