- Joe Sakic says he is “pretty confident” Cale Makar signs before the season starts
- The GM is not treating Sept. 15, the eight-year cutoff, as a hard deadline
- Read below for what Sakic said about Jared Bednar and Artturi Lehkonen
Joe Sakic is not sweating the calendar on Cale Makar.
Colorado’s general manager spoke with reporters Sunday before the Avalanche alumni game in Denver and said he is pretty confident his star defenseman signs an extension before the season starts. Makar has been eligible to sign one since July 1 and still does not have it.
“I’m pretty confident [Makar] will be signed before the season starts,” Sakic said.
Here’s the clip:
Beyond that, Sakic kept it vague. He called the dialogue great, declined to get into specifics, and said he is not looking at Sept. 15 as a deadline.
That date carries real weight. Under the new CBA it is the last day Makar can sign an eight-year extension in Colorado, and it also loosens the rules on signing bonus structure and year-to-year salary variability. Seven years is the ceiling after that, which is why term has been the sticking point all summer.
Makar turns 28 in October and is playing out the final season of a six-year deal that pays him $9 million a year. He has been a Norris Trophy finalist in each of the last six seasons and won it twice, and he put up 79 points in 75 games last year after 92 and 90-point campaigns. His next contract could come close to doubling the current one.
One theory going around is that Makar and Quinn Hughes are each waiting on the other. Hughes is chasing a monster extension in Minnesota, and whoever signs first sets the benchmark for the other.
Artturi Lehkonen is extension-eligible too, and Sakic gave nothing away there. The 31-year-old winger has hit 20 goals in three of the last four seasons and is in line for a raise on his $4.5 million cap hit.
Jared Bednar is in the last year of his deal as well. Sakic noted that plenty of coaches have worked through a final year without an extension and said neither man is worried. Bednar hits the 10-year mark on the job Tuesday, the second-longest active run of any head coach in the league.
Health was the easy part. Sakic said there are no lingering issues heading into camp, per Pro Hockey Rumors, after a year that cost Logan O’Connor most of the schedule and had Lehkonen, Devon Toews and Gabriel Landeskog miss double-digit games.
Sakic’s first summer back in the GM chair has played well with the alumni crowd he skated alongside Sunday. Peter Forsberg was asked what he makes of his old linemate running the front office again:
Take a look at the legends’ night:
Training camps open next month. The one signature Sakic still needs belongs to Makar.
