Joe Sakic says Cale Makar isn’t going anywhere.
The biggest piece of roster construction for the long-term future of the Colorado Avalanche this season has nothing to do with the 2026-27 roster. Makar is entering the final year of his contract and can be an unrestricted free agent on July 1, 2027.
He is also eligible to sign a new contract on July 1, 2026.
“Cale is going to finish his career here,” Sakic, now the Avalanche president and general manager, said. “We’re already talking to his agent, so we’re confident that something’s going to get worked out at some point. I mean, he’s got another year, but this summer we expect to have him signed.”
Makar is a two-time Norris Trophy winner as the NHL’s best defenseman. He’s been a finalist for the award six times in his first seven seasons. The only other player to achieve that was Bobby Orr, widely considered the best player at the position of all time.
This coming season will be the final one of a six-year, $54 million contract that Makar signed July 24, 2021. He and Quinn Hughes, the two players widely regarded as the best defensemen in the sport today, are in the same situation — both have one year remaining, both are eligible to sign new contracts in three weeks.
Hughes’ teammate with the Minnesota Wild, Kirill Kaprizov, reset the top of the NHL pay scale when he signed an eight-year, $136 million contract in September, giving him the highest cap hit in the league at $17 million per season. The second-highest paid player in the league is Edmonton center Leon Draisaitl, at $14 million per year.
Nathan MacKinnon is currently the highest-paid player on the Avalanche, about to enter the fourth season of an eight-year, $100.82 million contract that carries a cap hit of $12.6 million per season. When Mikko Rantanen was traded 18 months ago, MacKinnon said Makar “deserves $20 million” per season the following day.
The top players in the NHL are likely worth that much or more per season, but Kaprizov is the first player to really push the ceiling of what a superstar can make in a significant way.
Makar finished second in the Norris Trophy voting this season after he had 20 goals and 79 points in 75 games. He missed the first two games of the Western Conference Final against Vegas, and was laboring at the end of the second-round series against Minnesota because of a shoulder injury. He had also missed time in a game earlier in the Wild series after an awkward collision behind the net with Minnesota’s Marcus Foligno.
Makar finished the playoffs with five points in 11 games, his lowest per-contest output in the postseason of his career. There had been speculation that the start of next season could be in jeopardy for Makar because of the recovery time needed.
Sakic contradicted that speculation Thursday when asked about injury updates.
“Everybody’s going to be at training camp,” Sakic said. “Everybody’s going to be 100%, so that’s a positive going into the summer. There’s nobody that’s going to miss any time to start the season.”
