As the dog days of the NHL offseason loom over, the Colorado Avalanche sit pretty well in their seat this summer. A majority of their offseason signings and roster moves were made right before and after free agency kicked off, and the roster seems pretty much set in stone for opening day, though one cloud looms over the horizon, and that’s the Cale Makar extension.
During the end-of-season press conference, President of Hockey Operations and General Manager, Joe Sakic, said that he’s confident “Cale is going to finish his career here”. While there is still time for that deal to take place, everyone has been theorizing what his asking price is. Will he reset the defensemen market? Will he take the maximum amount possible?
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Though there is one question that not many are asking enough, and it’s a sign that is showing this summer in terms of contract extensions and signings: how long will Makar sign for?
NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman was on NHL Tonight on August 7th, and when asked about Makar’s extension and its current status—how much he’s looking for and for how long—this is what he had to say.
With one season remaining on his original six-year, $54 million contract, which carries a $9 million AAV, it’s obviously a top priority to get a deal done now before the season rolls on and Makar continues to do what he does best. Another season in which he ends up as a potential Norris Trophy candidate and is the team’s top scorer certainly helps his case for what he’s asking for.
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With the new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) taking effect Sept. 16, the maximum length of a contract when extending their own players will now be seven years, not eight, which the Avalanche want to capitalize on to ensure Makar is locked up for as long as possible.
Not only is AAV an issue, but the term is also becoming a major factor, making the Sept. 16 deadline even more important for the Avalanche to get this deal done beforehand. When will it be done, and are there any updates on its progress? Here is what Friedman had to say;
“The Avalanche said that we are gonna get this done [with Makar]; I think one of the big questions about him is going to be term,” Friedman said on the previously referenced NHL Tonight appearance.
Time is ticking for the Avalanche, but if you were in Makar’s shoes, obviously being with a Stanley Cup-contending team like the Avalanche is important, staying in a place that drafted you and won a Stanley Cup is ideal for any player while being able to secure the amount of money he is about to be paid.
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Though he is going to be 28 this year, and if you look around the NHL and how business is being dealt, is an eight-year contract really what Makar wants?
We’re at a time where the NHL is more profitable than ever, and with the salary cap blowing up every summer, it not only opens doors for more players to earn more money but also helps teams operate differently and get out of sticky cap situations, but it mainly shows how this new generation of players is going to be paid.
Look back years ago when star players in the league were signing their first major contract extension coming out of their ELC, and teams wanted to lock them up for the future. Major eight-year, double-digit contracts that set new standards for the league and what it’s like to be a franchise/face-of-the-league player, and compare it to this summer.
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The next generation of players, like Connor Bedard, Macklin Celebrini, and Leo Carlsson, are making over 15 to 18 million a year. Yes, you can argue they absolutely earned that money with their play on the ice and the circumstances of the rise of the salary cap and how their teams are positioned to pay them, but the one thing you should notice is the term.
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All of them signed a five-year deal (unlike Carlsson, who was offer-sheeted and signed a five-year deal), not the eight-year deal they could’ve signed for. Why? They left tens of millions of dollars on the table. It’s because all of these guys will be in their mid-twenties when their deals expire and will probably be able to sign a contract worth over $20 million easily if they maintain their level of play and the team starts to get better.
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Look at the position Makar is in: if he signs an eight-year deal, it would have him finish it in his mid-to-late 30s, likely closing in on maybe one more shorter contract before he retires. Though if he takes a shorter four-to-five-year contract, that would have him finish in his early-to-mid-30s and open the door to another longer contract after that.
There’s no doubt in my mind that Makar wants to remain an Avalanche for the rest of his career, but I think what’s happening right now is that management wants to lock Makar into the last-chance eight-year deal while Makar is debating either signing that long deal or playing out two-to-three shorter-term contracts and seeing if management is willing to go that route.
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