Cale Makar is about to get paid like the best defenseman alive, and anybody still pretending Colorado had a real choice is wasting oxygen.
Elliotte Friedman put it on the record Wednesday: the extension is “closing in,” “a biggie,” and “a critical piece of business for the Avalanche.” Evan Rawal of the Denver Gazette went further. He reported the sides agreed to terms late Tuesday night and were already prepping the paperwork. The announcement is coming. The only remaining question is the number on the sheet, not whether Joe Sakic was going to let a two-time Norris winner walk into unrestricted free agency after next season.
I have watched this league long enough to know when a franchise is about to define itself. This is that moment.
Back in June, Sakic did not hedge. He did not float trial balloons. He said, “Cale is going to finish his career here. We’re already talking to his agent, so we’re confident that something’s going to get worked out at some point. I mean, he’s got another year, but this summer we expect to have him signed.” That was not PR. That was a verdict. Three months later, with training camp weeks away, he was still calm. “Pretty confident he’ll be signed before the season starts. I’m not worried about it. I don’t think Cale’s worried about it.” Sakic was right not to worry. Great GMs do not flinch when the best player on the roster is due.
Colorado Is Paying for a Generation, Not a Season
Look at the résumé and try to argue otherwise with a straight face. Makar just finished a 75-game, 20-goal, 59-assist, 79-point season at plus-32 while averaging nearly 25 minutes a night. Third among all NHL defensemen in scoring. Norris Trophy finalist again. He already owns Norris hardware from 2022 and 2025. He has a Calder, a Stanley Cup, and a Conn Smythe. Through 470 career games he sits at 136 goals, 371 assists, and 507 points. He is the all-time Avalanche/Nordiques leader among defensemen in every major category. Fourth-fastest blueliner in league history to 500 points.
That is not a good player entering a raise year. That is a franchise cornerstone in his absolute prime at 27, still on a $9 million AAV deal that looks like a theft in hindsight. The current six-year, $54 million contract runs through 2026-27. After that he hits UFA. Colorado had one window to lock him before the new CBA rules capped own-player extensions at seven years. They used it.
I keep hearing the cap-flexibility chatter. The 2026-27 ceiling sits at $104 million. The theoretical max AAV is roughly $20.8 million. Reporters have floated everything from a sweet spot in the $17-18 million range to the first true $20 million defenseman. Fine. Debate the last million all you want. The principle is non-negotiable. You do not nickel-and-dime the man who runs your power play, logs the hardest minutes, and has already delivered a Cup and a Conn Smythe on this roster. You pay him, you keep Nathan MacKinnon happy, and you stay in the championship window instead of inventing excuses about future flexibility.
Quinn Hughes and Every Elite Blueliner Just Got a Raise
This deal does not stay in Denver. The second the AAV posts, every agent with an elite defenseman on the books will slide that number across the table. Quinn Hughes is watching. Every front office that has been soft-pedaling their own No. 1 will now have to explain why their guy is worth less. Makar is resetting the market the same way elite forwards did a cycle ago. Colorado is not just securing its own blue line. It is writing the new price tag for the position league-wide.
Sakic even locked up the family business on the side, extending younger brother Taylor Makar for two years at a modest AAV after the brothers shared a dozen NHL games last season. That is not coincidence. That is culture. That is a franchise telling its best player the building is his for as long as he wants it.
I do not need the final years and dollars to know what this means. When the announcement lands, Colorado will have told the entire NHL what a generation-defining defenseman costs in 2026. The number will be massive. The alternative was watching him leave and spending the next decade explaining the vacancy. Sakic already chose. The rest of the league just inherited the bill.
