 Sakic was born in Burnaby , British Columbia , to Marijan and Slavica Sakic ( originally Šakić , Croatian pronunciation : [ ʃakitɕ ] ) , immigrants from Croatia in what was then Yugoslavia . Growing up in Burnaby , he did not learn to speak English well until kindergarten , having been raised with Croatian as his mother tongue . At the age of four , Sakic attended his first NHL game , a match between the Vancouver Canucks and Atlanta Flames ; after watching the game , Sakic decided that he wanted to become a hockey player . As a smaller player , he was forced to use skill rather than size to excel , and modeled himself after his idol , Wayne Gretzky . After showing exceptional promise as a young hockey player in Burnaby , Sakic was referenced as a new Wayne Gretzky in the making . He scored 83 goals and 156 points in only 80 games for Burnaby , while attending school at Burnaby North Secondary Soon after , he was added to the Lethbridge Broncos of the Western Hockey League ( WHL ) for the last part of the 1985 – 86 season . 
