Cale Makar Contract: Avalanche Agree to Terms on Extension

Cale Makar’s next contract is basically finished.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman posted Thursday morning that Colorado and its star defenseman are into the final stretch of extension talks, and he made no attempt to talk down the number.

Evan Rawal of the Denver Gazette added the detail that turns this from a rumor into paperwork. Rawal wrote that the two sides settled on terms late Wednesday night.

Joe Sakic told reporters Sunday night that he was “pretty confident” Makar would be signed before the season started. Rawal’s take on that was blunt: Sakic wasn’t worried for a reason.

Makar is 27 and playing out the last year of a six-year deal that pays him $9 million a season. That figure is about to look like a bargain from another era.

Leo Carlsson reset the top of the market in Anaheim at $18 million, and a good chunk of the league expects Makar to land right next to that number or clear it outright. Some around the sport think he becomes the first NHL player to hit $20 million a year.

The resume gets him there. Two Norris Trophies, a Conn Smythe, a Stanley Cup, and 79 points in 75 games last season. Makar sits at 507 points in 470 regular season games and another 90 points in 90 playoff games, and he hasn’t turned 28.

The calendar matters here too. Colorado can still hand him eight years if the deal is signed by Sept. 15. Anything inked after that gets capped at seven under the new CBA, which is why so many of these negotiations have been racing the same date all summer.

One more domino sits downstream. Quinn Hughes and the Wild have gone quiet, and the working theory has been that Hughes and Makar were each waiting on the other to set the bar. Makar signing first hands Minnesota a comparable it didn’t have on Wednesday.

It’s the deal the entire offseason has been circling:

All that’s left is Colorado putting a term and a cap hit on paper.