The Colorado Avalanche don’t have a Cale Makar problem.
They have a Cale Makar price tag to figure out.
As the franchise turns the page from another disappointing playoff exit, there may not be a bigger offseason priority than locking up the best defenseman on the planet for the rest of his prime. The good news? That process appears to be little more than a formality.
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The Hockey News heard from multiple sources before GM Joe Sakic addressed the media at the club’s end-of-season availability that Makar is expected to finish his career in Colorado, with a contract extension viewed internally as all but inevitable.
That shouldn’t surprise anyone.
Elite defensemen almost never reach unrestricted free agency, and Makar has become far more than the face of Colorado’s blue line. He’s the engine that drives one of the NHL’s most explosive offenses, a former Conn Smythe Trophy winner and dual Norris Trophy winner who has redefined what the position looks like.
The only real question isn’t whether Makar will sign.
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It’s how high the number climbs.
His current contract carries a $9 million average annual value, a figure that once looked enormous but now feels like one of the league’s biggest bargains. With the salary cap set to continue rising and the market for superstar talent exploding, Makar is in line for a substantial raise.
A deal in the $15-16 million range feels entirely realistic.
That’s a staggering figure for a defenseman, but Makar has never been viewed as a player interested in squeezing every possible dollar out of an organization. Those around the team have long described him as someone who understands the value of roster construction. He wants to be paid like one of hockey’s elite players, but he also wants to give Colorado every opportunity to surround him with a championship-caliber roster.
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That balancing act could become one of the most fascinating negotiations of the summer.
There’s also an interesting piece of NHL history working against the Avalanche.
No team has ever won the Stanley Cup with a player carrying a cap hit above $10 million.
The trend has come close to ending. The Vegas Golden Knights captured the 2023 Stanley Cup with Jack Eichel earning exactly $10 million, while the Florida Panthers won back-to-back championships in 2024 and 2025 with both Aleksander Barkov and Sergei Bobrovsky carrying $10 million cap hits. But no champion has yet broken the eight-figure ceiling beyond that mark.
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Of course, context matters.
The salary cap has climbed dramatically, making raw dollar figures less meaningful than the percentage of cap space occupied by a superstar contract. What once represented an enormous slice of a team’s payroll will become increasingly manageable, making it feel inevitable that someone eventually shatters the trend.
Colorado may very well be the team that does it.
The Avalanche have already begun reshaping their roster, sending Ross Colton to the Nashville Predators on Tuesday in exchange for two draft picks and goaltender Magnus Chrona. The move creates additional flexibility while opening the door for further additions.
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And more moves should be coming.
Colorado has some work to do if they hope to reclaim its place among the league’s elite. Finding quality depth defenders will be just as important as completing Makar’s extension, especially after another season that ended well short of Stanley Cup expectations.
There’s little doubt Makar will be wearing burgundy and blue for years to come.
The bigger challenge for Joe Sakic and the Avalanche front office is building a roster around him that’s capable of turning another historic contract into another championship parade.
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