Cale Makar and the Colorado Avalanche delivered the latest shockwave on Friday afternoon. The Avs and their franchise defenseman agreed to the largest contract in NHL history, an eight-year, $163.2 million pact that makes Makar the league’s first $20 million man and keeps him under contract with Colorado through 2035.

“First reaction … wow!” former NHL coach Bruce Boudreau said. “It wasn’t long ago that $163 million to a hockey player would never be thought of. That����ap NBA territory, so good for him.”

Makar is widely considered the NHL’s premier defenseman. He has won the Norris Trophy twice, while being named a finalist six times in his first seven seasons. He also won the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year and the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player of the playoffs in 2022, when the Avalanche won the Stanley Cup.

“A unicorn deserves to break the bank,” TSN analyst Jon Goyens said. “He helps you win every night, helps you win Cup(s) and helps you sell tickets and merchandise.”

The path to a spot in the Hockey Hall of Fame is clear, and with good health, Makar will be a first-ballot lock far before this new contract is complete.

“Cale’s career to date is on par with many of the best defensemen to ever play in the history of the NHL,” ESPN analyst Kevin Weekes said. “He’s as great a person as he is a player — transformational. Love that the Avs recognized that from Day 1, and this new contract reflects that amazing partnership between him, the organization and the fans.”

Four different players have held the title “most expensive player in the NHL” since the Carolina Hurricanes lifted the Cup to complete the 2025-26 season. It was Kirill Kaprizov, with his $17 million cap hit, when the season ended.

But the Anaheim Ducks matched a 5-year, $90 million offer sheet for Leo Carlsson from the Philadelphia Flyers in early July. Carlsson, at $18 million, will have the highest cap hit in the league this coming season.

Three weeks later, Macklin Celebrini signed a five-year $94 deal that kicks in next season. His $18.8 million cap hit was set to pace the league, but Makar has already eclipsed him, and Minnesota’s Quinn Hughes could as well.

“Love it for him,” MSG Network analyst Cory Schneider said. “(Makar) is worth every penny and the financial landscape of the NHL world has evolved overnight, so this is the cost of doing business to keep the best player in the world — 1B to Connor McDavid as 1A. Love seeing NHL players signing deals worth $160 million overall too. It’s good for the game.”

Makar and Hughes were in the same situation when the offseason began. They are considered the two best defensemen in the league, and both are entering the final year of their current contracts.

The big difference is that Makar was drafted by the Avalanche and has already forged a legacy in Denver. Hughes was a huge trade addition early last season for the Wild. Minnesota is under immense pressure to convince Hughes to stay, but also doesn’t have the long-term equity with the player.

“I was born 10 years too soon!” said Bryce Salvador, a former NHL captain and defenseman for the New Jersey Devils, who now works for MSG Network. “It’s great to see the league is healthy, and provided the revenue continues to grow, players are going to continue to make more money — as they should.”

In the short term, the Avs have to be elated that Makar is signed and for the maximum eight years. It was hard to imagine Makar’s situation ever reaching a point like Mikko Rantanen’s did, but that memory is still plenty fresh.

There’s at least a handful of players in this league worth $20 million, but there might not be two handfuls. And the Avs have two of them. Keeping Makar with Nathan MacKinnon remains the bedrock of everything. The rest can be figured out.

“Not really surprised,” NHL Network analyst E.J. Hardek said. “I figured it was kind of whatever (Makar) wanted to sign for. Probably pressure as the bar-setter for him to get to a high number. But, he’s a special and very impactful player, so he deserves it.”

Makar’s deal is only $400,000 per year below the maximum he could have signed for — $20.8 million, which is 20 percent of the salary cap ceiling in 2026-27. But he won’t cost nearly 20 percent of the cap in any of the deal.

The cap ceiling is expected to rise to $113.5 million in 2027-28, when Markar’s deal begins. He’ll cost just a shade below 18 percent of the cap in the first year, and then less if the ceiling continues to rise like it has the past few years.

Makar, Celebrini and Carlsson have ushered in a new era of star-level spending. Hughes will soon join them.

It’s clear that Makar being on the roster is valuable at any number. How valuable, by dollars and cents, could depend on how many other defensemen join him and Hughes near the top of the financial food chain.

Zach Werenski, the 2026 Norris Trophy winner, is eligible for a similar megadeal next summer. So is Winnipeg’s No. 1 guy, Josh Morrissey. Miro Heiskanen, Evan Bouchard and Adam Fox are all two years out, along with Calder Trophy winner Matthew Schaefer.

But a lot of the best young defensemen in the league — Lane Hutson, Jackson Lacombe, Moritz Seider, Brock Faber, Noah Dobson, Thomas Harley and Rasmus Dahlin among them — are already locked into long-term contracts and won’t be joining the $ 15-million-plus club until at least halfway through Makar’s new deal.

Think of it like Nikola Jokic. He was absolutely worth $55 million to the Denver Nuggets this past season as one of the best players in the world. But he was even more valuable because 25 players in the league made at least $45 million.

“There are a lot of layers to it,” MSG analyst and 20-year NHL defenseman Ken Danyeko said. “The landscape has changed, as we know. I still think teams have to be careful and not get careless. I know easier said then done. I go by recent history and the balance on teams’ salaries that win Cups — I think that means something.

“Having said that, if there’s a guy you can pay this much, I would think it would be Makar. Best d-man in the league. But for me, that doesn’t mean you pay an above-average d-man $13 to $14 million because Makar set the bar. You have to still draw the line if you are going to have team success.”

Joe Sakic said superstar Cale Makar isn’t going anywhere, but his next contract will have a huge impact on how the Avs attempt to construct a Stanley Cup-contending roster into the next decade. Artturi Lehkonen has been a critical supporting star for the Avs since arriving at the trade deadline ahead of the club’s 2022 Stanley Cup run.

Both players have one year left on their current deals. The cap ceiling is expected to be $113 million for 2027-28, the first year of their new deals. That is $29.5 million more, or about 35% more than it was when Nathan MacKinnon started his eight-year, $100.8 million contract in 2023-24.

The negotiations for each deal will be entirely different. Makar is one of the best players in the world in the prime of his career. MacKinnon famously said Makar should get $20 million per season the day after Mikko Rantanen was traded to the Carolina Hurricanes.

Lehkonen is an extremely valuable player and a beloved teammate, but he’ll also be 32 when his next contract begins. It’s hard to fathom a number too big for the Avs with Makar, but it will be different with Lehkonen.

What might their contracts look like? The salary cap ceiling is surging to previously unforeseen levels, making it more difficult to project new deals. Sakic said last week that talks on extensions that don’t kick in until next year will start in mid-July. Maybe some deals signed by current free agents will provide more data on what contracts will look like moving forward.

Let’s try to find some comparable deals, and then adjust for the rising cap. Get ready to hear a lot about the percentage of the cap in the coming days/weeks/months to justify some cap hits that look … a little different than what we’re used to.

Cale Makar

Just kidding — there are no comparables for Makar.

Well, not as of Tuesday, anyway. Makar is one of the two best defensemen in the world. The other guy, Quinn Hughes, is also entering the final year of his contract. They’re on the same timeline. Who signs first, and will it impact the other?

The other issue — no elite defenseman has signed a contract as a pending UFA in a long time. It’s a weird quirk. The nine highest-paid forwards in the NHL right now all signed deals as pending unrestricted free agents.

Only three of the 10 highest-paid defensemen did. The other seven signed their deals as pending restricted free agents. That is a slightly different negotiation. If Makar had been an unrestricted free agent when he signed his last deal, he’d have gotten more than $54 million over six years.

Erik Karlsson and Drew Doughty both signed contracts of $11 million or more that began with the 2019-20 season. No other defenseman signed for that much per season until Rasmus Dahlin signed the same pact as Doughty — 8 years, $88 million. He was a pending restricted free agent, and that deal began two years ago.

Karlsson is the most expensive defenseman at $11.5 million. Makar and Hughes will reset the top of the defense market, and then reigning Norris Trophy winner Zach Werenski will be the next megadeal for a pending unrestricted free agent next year. Calder Trophy winner Matthew Schaefer will also be ready for a new deal next summer, and it is expected he’ll blow past what Makar got coming off his entry-level contract.

Here are the top-five contracts signed by defensemen who were pending unrestricted free agents in the league right now:

The percentage of the cap in year one of those deals matters. P.K. Subban also signed a deal that was worth a touch more than 13% of the cap when he was coming off a Norris Trophy win in 2014.

Both Makar and Hughes can make the case that they are among the top five to seven players in the sport, regardless of position. If Bobby Orr or Ray Bourque were 26 or 27 years old and a year from free agency, they’d be getting paid like a top five to seven player in the league.

So here are the top five contracts in the league right now:

Back to the cap percentage idea. If the Avs sign Makar to a deal worth $17 million per season, that would actually be slightly less (15.04%) than MacKinnon’s contract in 2023-24 (15.09%).

What MacKinnon said 18 months ago isn’t wrong. Makar is worth $20 million per year. The best players in the world are all worth that much, but superstars have consistently taken less to help their teams have more cap space to build around them. Kirill Kaprizov pushed the bar higher, but Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel didn’t go with him.

Even if Makar and Hughes didn’t want to take a higher percentage than what Karlsson got eight years prior, 14.11% of a $113 million cap is still $15.944 million per season.

The other big question, of course, is the term of the contract. The new collective bargaining agreement will limit the maximum contract length in future summers to seven years. Makar and Hughes (and Lehkonen) have until Sept. 15 to ink an eight-year pact if they’d like.

Kaprizov and Eichel did eight-year deals, but McDavid signed for just two, and Auston Matthews only inked a four-year pact. Whether Makar and Hughes decide to go short and cash in again, or go long for what will likely be their last huge deal, it’s going to cost Colorado (and Minnesota, assuming Hughes does sign) an enormous sum of money.

An eight-year, $120 million contract would be a significant victory for either franchise, and either might have to settle for something similar to Kaprizov’s deal.

Artturi Lehkonen

Lehkonen has been an immensely valuable player when available who has been on an incredibly team-friendly contract for years.

But, like the recently departed Valeri Nichushkin, the phrase “when available” also plays into this, and could even more so in the future.

Here’s something that sums up the past few years for the Avs: Since 2015-16, there have been 33 wings who meet this criteria — 200-plus games played, 70-plus goals scored and 150-plus points during their age 27-30 seasons. For Lehkonen and Nichushkin, that four-year window is 2022-23 through this past season.

Nichushkin has the fewest games played of the bunch (222) and Lehkonen has the third-fewest (248). Both have been highly productive when available. Both have missed 25% or more of the regular-season games. Nichushkin missed games in three of the past four postseasons, while Lehkonen missed two games in the second round this year and looked compromised during the Western Conference Final.

Lehkonen’s full value isn’t captured by 85 goals and 178 points over the past four seasons. He’s an excellent two-year player, penalty killer and someone who produces more on a per-game basis during the playoffs than the regular season.

Finding comparable players for him isn’t easy. Are the guys who have similar total production? The players with similar per-game numbers?

Here are some wings that might fit:

The guys who have the most similar career production ahead of the new contract are Arvidsson, Tarasenko, Teravainen and Smith. Arvidsson and Tarasenko were already dealing with injuries and decline, and their contracts reflected that. It’s also worth noting that both of those guys had nice bounce-back seasons last year, at ages 32 and 34, respectively.

Rust has aged the best. Palat and Smith have aged the worst. Toffoli is a weird case because he had played for six teams by the time his current deal was signed. But he had two of his best seasons at ages 30-31 and then signed with San Jose, where he scored 49 goals in two years.

There are seven players on this list. Lehkonen is more valuable than some, for sure. He hasn’t had quite the career, from a pure production standpoint, as Rust or Toffoli, at least.

The average cap percentage for those seven contracts is 6.15%. That amount in 2027-28 would be about $6.95 million. Lehkonen, when he’s healthy, has played like a $7 million player or more.

Given the cap surge, is he a $7 million player right now? And what about in the future?

The term for Lehkonen’s next deal could be just as important as the average annual value. It’s a tricky one on both fronts.

There’s no denying his present value, and losing Nichushkin only amplifies it. But there is potential for variance in the future with any deal that starts at age 32, and there might even be more than usual with Lehkonen because of his playing style and injury history.

Goaltenders | Defensemen | Wings

There are only two NHL teams besides the Colorado Avalanche who are in the conversation for best collection of centers and those clubs have combined for five Stanley Cup Final appearances in the past four seasons.

Center talent and depth was undeniably one of the reasons Colorado stormed through the regular season as the league’s top team and breezed by Los Angeles and Minnesota in the first two rounds of the playoffs. It’s also a valid reason for Avs fans to be frustrated.

Florida has two championships and a third Cup Final appearance with Aleksander Barkov, Sam Bennett and Anton Lundell. Edmonton has two trips to the Cup Final with Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.

But the Avs stalled out in the Western Conference Final this past season with Nathan MacKinnon, Brock Nelson, Nazem Kadri and Jack Drury at center, not to mention Nicolas Roy and others capable of moving to the middle when needed.

Those guys are obviously a big reason why the “Cup or bust” expectations will remain next season.

“The core guys are still here, so we’re going to shoot and try and win another Cup next year, and make it two,” Avalanche president and general manager Joe Sakic said. “But I will tell you, it’s a tough league. We’re not the only team that is trying to win the Stanley Cup. I mean, it’s a deep league. There’s a lot of great teams, and there’s only one team at the end of every year that’s happy.

“With our group, their goal is to try and win another Stanley Cup, and that’s what they’re going to shoot for, and that’s what we’re going to try and hopefully do.”

What just happened

MacKinnon led the NHL in goals for the first time and finished third in the Hart Trophy voting. His 127 points are third-most in franchise history, and he now owns the two best seasons since the club moved to Denver. When MacKinnon was injured blocking a shot with the Avs up 3-2 in Game 3 of the conference final, the season effectively ended in that moment.

Nelson had a great regular season — netting 33 goals, scoring 65 points, and finishing third in the Selke Trophy voting. When he and Valeri Nichushkin were paired together, it was the best 1-2 punch in the NHL at controlling possession and one of the league’s top penalty-killing duos as well. Nelson struggled throughout the postseason, most frustratingly when he failed to convert several great chances against Vegas.

Kadri arrived at the deadline to much fanfare. His production improved with Colorado despite moving down the lineup. He helped the power play surge in March and look competent in the first two rounds. He also sustained a broken finger in April, which kind of got lost among all the other injuries Colorado players were dealing with during the Vegas series.

Drury was OK as the club’s No. 3 center, but was excellent when moved back to his No. 4 role. He’s one of the very best 4Cs in the league and a strong penalty killer.

Roy arrived one day before Kadri, and spent most of his time on the wing. He was strong in a supporting role during the playoffs. Both Parker Kelly and Ross Colton spent some time at center, but coach Jared Bednar liked both more on the wing. Rookie Zakhar Bardakov also spent some of his limited ice time at center and looked like a player who might fit better in the long term as a wing.

“When I look at their team, I guess I lean towards not making a whole bunch of changes,” ESPN analyst Ray Ferraro told The Denver Post. “But I would wonder if there’s a way they can spruce up the middle of the ice with a little more speed? So maybe Kadri needs to go to the wing, and if you do that, can you find a centerman that can play there?

What����ap next

The Avs’ center depth and talent looked formidable before the stunning results against Vegas.

Will Nelson bounce back after a tough postseason? He was a consistent playoff performer with the Islanders.

Kadri is a slightly different case because of his history in Denver, but Nelson was much better in his first full season after the trade. Could Kadri, given the unsettling aspects of a trade and the finger injury, find a bump in play next year?

To further Ferraro’s point, Kadri turns 36 years old on Oct. 6. Nelson turns 35 nine days later. MacKinnon will be 31 in September, though he obviously remains one of the fastest, most dynamic players in the sport. Roy turns 30 in February.

It is an interesting idea, trying to find a younger center with more pace to join the group. Kadri had mixed results on the wing when he spent some time there for the Avs.

Drury is a restricted free agent and is one of the keys to this offseason. With Colton off to Nashville, the Avs have nearly $7 million in cap space. They also need to sign at least two NHL defensemen.

While Colorado views Drury as a No. 4 center and would certainly like to keep him, there is probably a team or six out there that would like to have Drury as an option for its No. 3C role. If the two sides can’t find the middle ground on a contract, the Avs could hold their ground and see what an unpleasant arbitration process yields.

That would likely lead to a one- or two-year contract and more than likely a new team in the near future. If Drury won the arbitration case, that could cause salary-cap-related problems for the club. Or the Avs could explore a trade for Drury’s rights before it ever got to that.

If everyone is here on opening night, the Avs still have a very strong 1-4 up the middle with Roy and Kelly as solid options in reserve. High-profile college free agent addition TJ Hughes can also play center. He’s been an offense-first player, but his college coach believes he can help an NHL team in the near future in any role.

Future depth chart

*Unrestricted free agent in 2027; + Restricted free agent on July 1; # RFA in 2027

Makar Macouldn’t.

No. 8’s shifts became as labored as Homer Simpson running up five flights of stairs. Cale Makar, the Avalanche’s star defenseman, didn’t even come out to the bench at the start of Game 5’s epic overtime finish. At one point, All Hail Cale a wince you felt from a distance, pain even national TV cameras couldn’t hide.

How do you know when it’s your year? When it’s your Stanley Cup? While the best D-man on planet Earth could barely hold a stick, Brett Kulak sticks it to The Wall of St. Paul.

“You always like to dream about it, but like you say, the player I am, I’m not the guy everyone’s looking down the bench at, like, ‘All right, get out there and go win it for us,'” said Kulak, the hard-charging but soft-spoken D-man whose fourth career postseason goal — in 107 playoff games — was his biggest, an overtime winner that sent Colorado to the Western Conference Final for the first time since 2022.

“No, it’s been good. It was a tough series. That’s a good (Minnesota) team over there. So for us to play the way we did and get the job done — and then, just for me, (it was) a special goal in my career, for sure.”

A gorgeous one, too. A rocket launched from the right face-off dot, set up by a whirling Martin Necas, who’d jumped onto the ice when he realized the Avs were a man short.

“I just saw (that) we’re coming back in our zone. And, you know, we had four guys, so I was like, ‘Might as well jump there, you know? I don’t care,'” Necas recalled later when asked about his second helper Wednesday. “So yeah, it worked out … great play by (Parker Kelly), banging it to me, and then I just did whatever I saw.”

He went around Wild goalie Jesper Wallstedt’s net, came out the other side, and saw Kulak in the face-off circle.

“We built on momentum from the third (period), carried (that) into OT,” Kulak said. “And just for me personally, Marty carried it up, (got) his wheels going around the O-Zone, and I just kind of was able to slide into an open spot in the weak side of the ice, and credit to him. (He had) good vision and put it right in the perfect spot for me to get a good shot.”

And even sweeter redemption. Earlier in the evening, for the second Minnesota goal of the night with 8:57 left in the opening period. Colorado stared at a 3-0 deficit after the first intermission. It was Game 3’s dumpster fire, compressed into 20 minutes of offal.

“Yeah, I mean, you get buried a couple goals (down) in the first, and they’re all over it,” Kulak said of the Avs’ crummy start. “You’ve got no time and space, and you feel like it’s going to be a long night.

“(So you) just kind of chip away, one shift at a time, and you start to get the momentum, and things start to shift.”

Trailing 3-0, a defense that had half a Makar or no Sam Malinski at all somehow held the Wild to seven shots over the final 44 minutes.

“(That’s) huge, yeah,” said coach Jared Bednar, whose team improved to 8-1 through its first two playoff series of 2026. “I mean, you can’t understate that.

“When you look at (Brent) Burns’ series, I mean, because you’re without (Josh) Manson early. (Manson) comes back, you’re without (Sam) Malinski, you’ve got Cale fighting through stuff. I mean, there’s only six (defensemen), right? And guys need to step up. We were four guys rolling on the bench … I think Burns’ (Minnesota) series was incredible, and obviously Kulak’s was the same.”

“So how is Cale feeling?” I asked.

Bednar paused.

“Cale is OK,” the coach replied.

He sure didn’t look it late. Especially after Makar and Minnesota’s Mats Zuccarello had collided behind the net in the third period. The Avs’ star defender quickly grimaced, dropped his stick and appeared to grab his right shoulder in agony. Then he headed to the tunnel. Gingerly.

“It’s not just one guy who steps in and takes over the minutes,” said Kulak, now tied for second this postseason among Avs defenders in points (five) while ranking third in ice time per game (20:48). “I think everyone has to chip in, and the whole team has to just play solid hockey.”

“Was that your first (goal)?” MacKinnon asked Kulak during their news conference.

“Yeah,” the defenseman replied.

“So another guy,” MacKinnon said with an almost bubbly grin. “I mean, that’s a great stat. You know, that’s the stat you want to see — team stats and, you know, everyone’s chipping in.”

How’s this for chipping in? Kulak is just the seventh guy in NHL history to have his first goal for a new club be a series-ender in the postseason. He’s also the 16th different Avs player to score this series, tying an NHL record.

“I love it, I love it,” Bednar said of scoring depth that overwhelmed a Minnesota roster without Joel Eriksson Ek and Jonas Brodin. “That’s hard to beat.

“When you have different guys stepping up every night, you can’t key on one guy. There’s no sort of coming in to play our team and (saying) like, ‘Well, if we shut down the (Nathan) MacKinnon line, we’re going to win.'”

These Avs can beat you with speed, with size, with strength, with cunning, with defense, with goaltending, by land, by air, or by sea. General manager Chris MacFarland’s trade deadline additions — Nicolas Roy, Nazem Kadri, Nick Blankenburg — loom larger by the week, letter-perfect finishing touches to a core of Makar, Nathan MacKinnon, Necas, Gabriel Landeskog and The Lumberyard between the pipes.

And there’s Kulak, who came over from Pittsburgh in the Sam Girard swap, now only the third guy in NHL annals to play with MacKinnon, Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby. The 32-year-old’s last two postseasons ended in the Stanley Cup Final with the Edmonton Oilers. Dude knows what this is supposed to look like. What it’s supposed to feel like.

“I think at (this) point, it just becomes a group effort throughout everybody that’s going,” Kulak said. “I mean, Cale is battling out there. He’s playing really well, and it (stinks) having Sammy (Malinski) out. He’s a big piece of the team, too. So when guys are coming and going, and you’re missing a couple bodies here and there, other guys just step up and fill the void.”

Makar somehow logged 25 minutes Wednesday night while being held together by duct tape and piano wire. Manson toughed it out through 19:19. Burns, who was born in 1985 but wears a beard from 1885, put in 19:47 of ice time. In May and June, it doesn’t matter who carries the flag, just so long as that bad boy, however tattered, gets over the line.

The NHL announced the salary cap ceiling for the 2026-27 season will be $104 million, which was the reported and projected number. That is an $8.5 million increase from this season, and the Avs have already committed a chunk of that space.

Here’s the good news: This Avalanche team looks primed for a run at the Stanley Cup, and nearly all of the key figures from this group are already under contract for next season. The biggest storyline entering the offseason doesn’t even involve a contract for next season.

Here’s the less good news: The Avs have precious little cap space available this offseason, unless a current regular under contract gets moved. And nearly $2.3 million for next year is gone because the bill for this roster went a little over the limit. It was legal because Brent Burns signed an incentive-laden one-year contract. That’s where the overage is from, but the Avs will be more than happy to work around that issue next year if this group keeps winning.

The Avs have 17 guys from the current roster under contract through 2027 or beyond. They have a little less than $3 million in cap space available, about $2.98 million, . There are four unrestricted free agents — Burns, Brett Kulak, Nick Blankenburg on defense, Joel Kiviranta at forward. Two forwards, Jack Drury and Zakhar Bardakov, are restricted free agents.

So yeah, the players, coaches and fans are all focused on this Avalanche team’s chase of a fourth championship in franchise history. But Chris MacFarland and his group in the front office always have one eye towards the future.

The 2026-27 team should look very similar to the one, especially if the Avs get past the Minnesota Wild and into the Western Conference Final or beyond.

Here are the biggest questions for the offseason, barring any significant injuries in the coming weeks:

Will Cale Makar sign a new megadeal?

Makar has one more year left on his contract, but that makes him eligible to sign a new deal starting July 1. The cap ceiling is expected to keep rising at unprecedented levels — to $113.5 million in the first year of Makar’s new contract and $123 million in the second season.

The maximum cap hit for the 2026-27 season is $20.8 million. But just for reference, by Year 2 of Makar’s new deal, if the ceiling is $123 million, the max cap hit that year will be $24.6 million (which, by the way, will be the first season of Connor McDavid’s next contract).

Nathan MacKinnon famously said the day after Mikko Rantanen was traded that Makar should get $20 million. There’s little question that he would be worth it. The best players in the world have always been underpaid in the salary cap era, from Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin to MacKinnon and McDavid.

Kirill Kaprizov pushed the artificial ceiling on contracts to $17 million per year. Will Makar, or Quinn Hughes, who also has one year left, establish a new standard?

The Avs will want to get a deal done as soon as possible. Makar’s deal won’t have a huge effect on the 2026-27 team, though it could restrict which players the club might pursue to some extent.

Will they be able to keep Kulak?

Kulak has been a great fit. He’s also probably made himself some money this season, with another strong postseason after the previous two in Edmonton. He’ll also be 33 years old next year.

His current contract is at $2.75 million per year. If Kulak really wants to stay and was willing to take a shorter deal and at something close to that figure, the Avs can make it work by trading someone else. Could two or three years at $3.5-4 million work for both sides? Maybe.

But, given the amount of cap space other teams are going to have, and the dearth of quality free agents available, it’s also possible that another team would offer him double his current cap hit on a deal that will run into his late 30s. If that happens, the Avs would almost certainly have to thank him for this run and wish him luck.

Will they be able to keep Drury?

The Avs have other guys who could be the No. 4 center next year behind MacKinnon, Brock Nelson and Nazem Kadri. Nicolas Roy or Parker Kelly could play there. Bardakov could be given another shot at the role. And the Avs could reassess where things stand before the deadline.

But Drury is a really, really good No. 4 center. And he’s a restricted free agent, which means one outcome is the Avs bring him back on a one-year deal, and then he gets to test the open market the following summer. He does have arbitration rights, but Drury didn’t have great numbers this year. It’s harder to argue with intangibles and how much the coach loves you in an arbitration hearing.

If the Avs want to lock him into a longer deal, it would almost certainly mean another regular under contract has to leave. Drury does feel like the type of player who, if the Avs were to win the Cup, would be very in demand if the Avs decided to make him available in a trade.

Will Burns and the Avs want to run it back?

Burns will turn 42 next March. This could be his last ride. But … he’s played pretty well in a lesser role, been a huge hit in the dressing room and most of all, the guy just loves to play. If he does come back, he’ll also be able to take aim at Phil Kessel’s record ironman streak. He’s 57 (regular-season) games away.

If he wants to play, and the Avs want him back, a similar deal to this one (one year, $1 million-ish in salary with incentives) seems pretty easy to put together.

How will the Avs find some flexibility?

The Avs don’t have a bad contract on the books right now. And the longer they play in this tournament, the more the value of some of their players will rise. That could be an issue with trying to retain Kulak, or even Blankenburg if he gets an extended postseason look. But that does help if the Avs need to trade someone.

The most obvious someone is Ross Colton, who has played well since returning to the lineup but has had two snakebitten seasons in a row and was a healthy scratch to start the playoffs. He has one year left at $4 million, which is a fine number for a middle-six forward. And there could be plenty of teams interested in his services, if the Avs decided to prioritize Kulak or need to replace him. Colton could also be the odd man out if the Avs want to do a longer deal with Drury.

MacKinnon, the 2024 winner as the NHL’s most valuable player, led the NHL with 53 goals this season and finished third with 127 points this season. The Colorado Avalanche star finished with 97 points at even strength, which is the most by any player since Wayne Gretzky had 103 in 1990-91.

“For me, Nate, he’s somewhat of a unicorn when it comes to his abilities, the way he plays, the physicality and the skill level and pace he plays with,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “There aren’t too many guys who are putting up 100-plus points a year that go play as physical as Nate did last game. … We saw it in 2022. We’re seeing it again in this series. It����ap personally why I think he should be in that running every year.

“It����ap because there’s no one else like him, really, in the league that plays that way with that sort of speed, ability, skill and then physicality and sort of emotion and passion. Everyone does it differently, it����ap not taking away anything from the other guys. Some of those other guys do things that Nate doesn’t do and they play a little more of a cerebral game. But that����ap what I think makes Nate so special. He’s one of one.”

Edmonton’s Connor McDavid and Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov are the other finalists for the award, which is voted on by the Professional Hockey Writers Association. MacKinnon was also a finalist in 2018, 2020 and 2021 before breaking through in 2024.

MacKinnon’s even-strength dominance helped the Colorado Avalanche win the Presidents’ Trophy this season. The Avs, fueled by a historic 31-2-7 start, led the NHL standings every day from Nov. 1 through the end of the regular season. MacKinnon had 35 goals in those first 40 games, including 28 at even strength — more than any player had in all situations at that point in the campaign.

This year was a four-person race for the league’s two MVP awards. MacKinnon won both the Hart and the Ted Lindsay Award in 2024, but he is not a finalist for the latter this year. San Jose’s Macklin Celebrini is, along with McDavid and Kucherov. MacKinnon will likely finish fourth in the Lindsay voting, just as Celebrini will likely be fourth in the Hart.

MacKinnon, who surpassed 400 goals and 1,100 points in his career this season, has finished in the top three of the Hart voting more times than franchise legends Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg, and Patrick Roy combined. He could become the first player in club history to win the Hart a second time. There are 19 players in NHL history who have won the Hart more than once.

After starting this postseason with just one point in the first three games against the Los Angeles Kings, MacKinnon has had back-to-back-to-back three-point efforts to close out the first round and help the Avs open a 2-0 series lead against the Minnesota Wild.

It’s also pushed him to the forefront of the Conn Smythe Trophy discussion. Avs coach Jared Bednar called his Game 2 performance against the Wild “off the charts.”

“He just wants to impact the game every time he steps on the ice,” Avs captain Gabe Landeskog said. “I think that’s what it comes down to. And knowing Nate, he doesn’t come home and count the points he had, or do any of that. That����ap not what he bases his performance off of — it����ap how he impacted the game on both sides of the puck. The offensive production is a byproduct of that. He prepares the right way, has the right mindset and goes out and wants to be an impact every time he steps on the ice.

“Do we get numb to it? No, there’s still a lot of plays where it kind of takes you back. But at the same time, he’s awesome, so you do come to expect it after a while. Just happy he’s on our side.”

FOOTNOTE: Bednar said he’s confident Josh Manson, who has missed the past three games with an injury, will return while the team is in Minnesota for Games 3 and 4. Jack Ahcan did not travel with the team as an insurance defenseman in part because the Avs believe Manson will be ready soon.

It had been a lean few years — three seasons without a playoff berth — but the Kings clinched a spot in the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs four years ago Sunday. A couple of weeks later, they left Edmonton with a 3-2 series lead and came home for Game 6 against the Oilers.

Los Angeles had found a solid group of younger players to help Anze Kopitar, Drew Doughty, Dustin Brown and Jonathan Quick — the core four of the 2012 and 2014 Stanley Cup champions — return to relevance. Even more importantly, the Kings had arguably the best collection of prospects in the sport. The Athletic in Feb. 2022.

The bridge from the Cup champs to the next contender was built. Los Angeles had the opportunity to be one of the most successful franchises in the 2020s. It was all right there.

And then … it wasn’t.

The Kings will try to extend their season Sunday afternoon at Crypto.com Arena, but the Colorado Avalanche have built a 3-0 series lead. The Avs could complete the sweep in a series that has featured plenty of textbook checking and defensive play from the Kings, but just four goals and two that weren’t desperation 6-on-4 tallies.

What has transpired over the past five seasons for the Kings is a cautionary tale for many NHL teams. Ready to move on from the franchise legends who carried you to new heights? Ready to start a rebuilding process? Ready to begin the climb back after said rebuilding process?

Study what the Kings have done. Analyze the missteps to determine what was a bad process, bad results, or just bad luck.

Los Angeles did not win Game 6 in 2022. Or Game 7. That was Brown’s last game before retirement.

Quick began the next year with the club but was traded before the deadline. If the Avs win Sunday, it will be Kopitar’s last NHL game.

Los Angeles has made the playoffs for five consecutive seasons. That is not an insignificant accomplishment. But the Kings are one loss from five straight first-round exits. They have won just five playoff games (5-17) since leaving Edmonton after a Game 5 overtime win in May 2022.

A bridge that fell apart

The problem is the Kings never took the next step. They have plateaued in the mushy middle of the NHL — the worst place to be for long-term designs of winning a Stanley Cup. Four straight first-round losses to the Oilers, but even if the Kings had won one of those series, none of those teams were considered serious contenders.

What happened? A lot has gone wrong, but in the simplest terms … that No. 1 group of prospects didn’t pan out.

Two of the Kings’ top 20 prospects from Feb. 2021 have played in this series against Colorado — Quenton Byfield and Mikey Anderson. Byfield and Alex Turcotte were once two of the very best prospects in the sport, and Kings fans envisioned a Byfield-Turcotte-Kopitar center depth chart that would terrorize teams.

Byfield is a really good NHL player and young enough to maybe still become a great one. Turcotte had major injuries and hasn’t become more than a fourth-line center. Guys like Arthur Kaliyev, Tyler Madden and Akil Thomas did not develop as planned.

What’s worse is the names on that list who aren’t playing for the Kings: Brock Faber, Gabe Vilardi, Jordan Spence and Sean Durzi. Kevin Fiala is a good NHL player, and the Kings miss him in this series after he was hurt at the 2026 Winter Olympics.

He is not a franchise cornerstone player. Faber, who was traded to Minnesota along with a first-round pick for Fiala, has become one for the Wild. Pierre-Luc Dubois was a disaster in Los Angeles, and the trade to get him from Winnipeg, which included Vilardi at the front of a huge package of assets, was another large misstep.

This Kings team is definitely worse than the past four. They won just 22 games in regulation — only the 32nd-place Vancouver Canucks won fewer. They extended the playoff streak only by the grace of the NHL’s point system and 20 overtime losses.

If the Kings do not win four straight games, this will be the 12th consecutive season without a playoff series win. The last time it happened, Brown went to retrieve the Stanley Cup from Gary Bettman for the second time in 2014.

Where do the Kings go from here?

Kopitar will be tough to replace for myriad reasons. Fiala and Adrian Kempe will be 30 next year. Artemi Panarin is here and signed for two more years. He’ll be 35 next year. Doughty will be 37.

Byfield, Anderson, Brandt Clarke, and Alex Laferriere are all quality NHL players … who would be great complementary core pieces to the 2-3 superstar level players needed to be a true Cup contender.

The days of Doughty and Panarin being those players is over. The Kings’ prospect pool .

Will the Kings be able to lure any stars in the near future? How would they build a trade package big enough to deal for one?

Would a franchise that hasn’t won a playoff series in 12 years consider a second rebuilding process? That is venturing into Buffalo and Edmonton pre-Connor McDavid territory.

Should the Kings have cashed in Kopitar or Doughty during the rebuilding process? That’s tough to say — they did the thing every franchise with aging stars wants to do.

They built the bridge. It just fell apart before they could cross it. And now they’re left with more questions than answers, and possibly needing yet another bridge.

The Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals are in similar spots now. The Avalanche will be there some day too.

Some of what went wrong for the Kings is obvious. A lot of it is tougher to diagnose, but other NHL teams should absolutely try to so they know which types of mistakes to avoid in the future.

MacKinnon will win the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy, given to the NHL’s top goal scorer. He finished his season with 53 goals in 80 games.

Montreal’s Cole Caufield finished his season Wednesday with 51 goals, while Connor McDavid needed five in his final game Thursday to catch MacKinnon. It did not happen, so MacKinnon becomes the second player in Avalanche history to win the award, joining Milan Hejduk in 2002-03.

MacKinnon was in the hunt for the Art Ross Trophy as the league’s leading point-getter each of the past two seasons. He finished second to Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov both times.

He did sweep the league’s MVP awards, the Hart Trophy and the Ted Lindsay Award, after the 2023-24 season. MacKinnon is one of the top contenders for those honors again this season, after finishing first in goals and third in points with 127 — the second most of his career.

MacKinnon was the game’s most dominant player at even strength. He finished with 97 even-strength points, the most any player has had since Wayne Gretzky had 103 in 1990-91.

The 30-year-old MacKinnon’s on-ice numbers, both at 5-on-5 and even strength, were among the best of the NHL analytics era, which dates back to 2007-08. The Avs outscored foes 100-42 when MacKinnon was on the ice at 5-on-5 this year.

Seattle’s Vince Dunn was on the ice for 103 goals, the most by any player in this era, and 65 against at 5-on-5 in 2022-23. Calgary’s duo of Johnny Gaudreau (96-38) and Matthew Tkachuk (92-36) in 2021-22 were both slightly better than MacKinnon’s 70.42 GF%.

Colorado outscored teams 126-59 with MacKinnon on the ice at even strength. That is four more goals than the 122 the Avs scored with him on the ice two years ago, which was the previous record.

MacKinnon and the Avs won the Presidents’ Trophy as the NHL’s top regular-season team. They will begin their quest for a second Stanley Cup championship in five years with Game 1 of the playoffs Sunday at Ball Arena.

Sam Malinski scored in regulation for the NHL-best Avalanche, who have won three of four overall and seven straight road games.

Connor McDavid scored his 48th goal for the playoff-bound Oilers, who have lost four of five. Edmonton fell two points behind first-place Vegas in the Pacific Division.

McDavid leads the league with 134 points and needs one more to become the seventh player in league history to reach 135 at least twice. The others are Wayne Gretzky (12 times), Mario Lemieux (five), Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito, Marcel Dionne and Steve Yzerman.

Scott Wedgewood made 30 saves for Colorado, and Edmonton’s Connor Ingram also stopped 30 shots.

In the shootout, McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored in the first two rounds for Edmonton, and Valerie Nichushkin and Martin Necas replied for Colorado. Wedgewood then stopped a wrist shot by Jack Roslovic, opening the door for MacKinnon’s game-winner.

The Avs were missing Nazem Kadri (finger), Cale Makar (upper body) and Josh Manson (upper body) as they prepare for the playoffs.

The Oilers remained without forwards Leon Draisaitl and Zach Hyman, although both resumed skating with the team on Monday.

Necas was held scoreless and still needs one point to reach 100 for the first time. Only four Avalanche players have ever hit the century mark — Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg, MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen.

Up next

Avalanche: At the Calgary Flames on Tuesday.

Oilers: Host the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday.

___

AP NHL:

Making the playoffs has been inevitable for months. Colorado has been atop the league standings since Nov. 1. The lead has swelled to as much as 12 points, but it was only four after a 4-1 win Friday night at the United Center.

Who the Avs will play in the first round first depends on their ability to hold off the Dallas Stars for the top spot in the Central Division and the Western Conference. If the Stars vault past them in the final 14 games of the season, the Avalanche will face the Minnesota Wild — fifth in the NHL as of Saturday morning. If the Avs hang on to the division title, it could be a host of teams in the second wild-card spot.

Who should they want to play? Is there anyone they might want to avoid? Let’s rank the potential first-round opponents, from worst to best.

NOTE: We’re not including Dallas on this list. It would take basically the worst collapse in NHL for the Wild to pass both Dallas and Colorado and force the rivals into another first-round slugfest. If that’s happening again this year, it will be in the second round of the tournament. 

10. Minnesota Wild 

This one is pretty obvious. The Wild have been the third-best team in the NHL for a decent chunk of the season. They added Quinn Hughes, have two of the best forwards in the league and two goalies that are capable of stealing a game or two. While Minnesota does not have the center depth that Colorado and Dallas can roll out, the Wild does have a bunch of physical depth players. Playing them in a series will likely be a disadvantage in the second round, if the Stars or Avs get past them.

9. Edmonton Oilers 

This one is also pretty simple. The Oilers have been mediocre at times this season. They’ve also finished 5th and 6th in the West the past two seasons, and ended up in the Stanley Cup Final. The goaltending is bad, but Connor McDavid and a presumably healthy-by-then Leon Draisaitl can make that not matter.

8. Utah Mammoth 

There’s a pretty good argument that Utah is the fourth-best team in the West. The Mammoth might still finish with the fourth-most points. If they slip to eighth … the Mammoth don’t have a lot of playoff experience, but they have been plenty frisky against the Avs in the four matchups this year. Utah is going to be a problem soon, though it might not be for another year.

7. Vegas Golden Knights 

Vegas should probably be grouped with Edmonton. This team is much better on paper than its record. It has Stanley Cup-winning DNA in the room. But … it just hasn’t been right for the Golden Knights for much of this season. It’s mostly the goaltending, and maybe Adin Hill can find the magic he conjured in 2023. Doesn’t feel like it’s going to happen, though.

If we’re being honest, the rest of this list is more “which teams might be annoying and extend the series.”

6. Los Angeles Kings

The Kings have won 18 games in regulation. Chicago has won 19. Those 16 overtime/shootout losses are doing a lot of work to keep Los Angeles in the race. If the Kings do make it, they have a strong goaltender who knows the Avs well in Darcy Kuemper. They can play defense and muck up games. They also addressed a major need ahead of the deadline by signing Artemi Panarin, who can still be a gamebreaker. If Kevin Fiala can return from injury for the playoffs, they could be prickly.

5. Winnipeg Jets 

It’s pretty unlikely that Winnipeg can make it all the way back to a playoff spot after falling as low as 32nd place earlier in the season. But, if they do make it … the Jets will be one of the hottest teams in the league and Connor Hellebuyck will be riding some kind of heater from the Winter Olympics through a late-season surge.

4. Anaheim Ducks 

The Ducks are the least likely opponent on this list. They lead the Pacific Division right now, even if Utah’s “goal differential” is plus-32 better. That’s goosed by Anaheim’s 8-0 record in shootouts. There are no shootouts in the playoffs. Seriously, the Mammoth are probably going to be favored in that series, if it does happen.

3. San Jose Sharks 

It looks like the Sharks are the only team in this group running out of gas. They’re still in it, though. They are clearly the worst defensive team in the mix. Colorado might score five goals a game against them. But Macklin Celebrini and Co. also might turn a couple of them into shootouts — the traditional kind with goals galore, not the one-on-one skills competitions.

2. Seattle Kraken 

Maybe the Kraken should be a little higher on this list because of 2023. That Avs team was coming off a Cup run and riddled with injuries, though. It’s also possible that this Seattle team is not as good as the one from four years ago. The Kraken are 31st in the league in expected goals for percentage (xGF%) at even strength. Nathan MacKinnon said the Avs didn’t play that well in Seattle last week. They won 5-1.

1. Nashville Predators

Nashville traded away four players at the deadline, including Nick Blankenburg to Colorado, and yet is still hanging around in the wild-card race. The Avs swept the Predators in 2022 in the famous “waste of eight days” series, as then-Calgary coach Darryl Suter called it. If the Avs play like they did against Dallas and Chicago over the final 14 games, this matchup could be pretty similar.