The 26-year-old forward is entering the final season of the seven-year, $44.1 million contract ($6.3 million average annual value) he signed on July 8, 2016.
"I mean, it doesn't have to be before free agency. Obviously, he's got another year, but we're hoping to have something done with him, an extension, this summer," Sakic said at the 2022 Upper Deck NHL Draft.
MacKinnon had 88 points (32 goals, 56 assists) in 65 games this season and 24 points (13 goals, 11 assists) in 20 games in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, helping Colorado win its first championship since 2001.
Since 2017-18, MacKinnon is third in the NHL with 442 points (167 goals, 275 assists) in 338 games.
Sakic said MacKinnon's next contract could dictate what Colorado does with its pending unrestricted free agents, which includes forwards Andre Burakovsky, Darren Helm, Nazem Kadri, Valeri Nichushkin and Nico Sturm, and defensemen Jack Johnson, Josh Manson and Ryan Murray.
"It has to be because we have to look to the future," Sakic said. "We have a kind of a ballpark, well we believe we have a ballpark on where that's going to go."
Although Sakic knows he won't be able to re-sign all of Colorado's free agents and that some may test the free agent market, which opens on July 13, he said he's close on some of them.
"I'm not going to detail on with who, but we're hopeful that we'll be able to make an announcement and not have all of them go to the market on Wednesday," Sakic said.
"We're talking. Obviously, free agency is Wednesday, so we've got some time. We met with all the agents here this week in Montreal, and once we get through the draft we're going to continue that dialogue and hopefully we'll be able to make headway with some of the guys. We know we're not going to be able to sign everybody. We know that. But we've got our priority, and I think some players will test the market, see what's out there for them, and see if they want to come back to us. Time will tell."
One player Colorado already decided to move on from is goaltender Darcy Kuemper. The Avalanche acquired Alexandar Georgiev in a trade with the New York Rangers on Thursday for a third- and fifth-round pick in the 2022 draft, and a third-round pick in the 2023 NHL Draft.
The 26-year-old, who can become a restricted free agent on July 13, will form a tandem with Pavel Francouz, who signed a two-year contract with Colorado on March 12.
"Obviously, everybody knows we're in a cap situation, and to be able to make a trade to get someone a little bit younger (Kuemper is 32) and he'll be a little bit cheaper, so it'll help our cap situation," Sakic said. "It was hard to phone Darcy and tell him we're moving on. I mean, he helped us win a Stanley Cup. Usually, you don't really want to move on from those guys. Tremendous person, tremendous teammate, did a heck of a job for us all year.
"I didn't want to make the call, but obviously you do what you think is right for the team. It was hard and I know it was probably difficult for him, but he's going to do great wherever he goes. I'm sure there's a bunch of teams that will try to sign him."
