August has brought a familiar kind of wait in Colorado: the Avalanche still haven’t worked out a contract extension for Cale Makar beyond the 2026-27 season, even though they could have done it as early as July 1.
That doesn’t mean alarm bells are going off. Quinn Hughes is in a similar spot, and his next deal also remains unresolved past the coming season. The setup naturally leads to one question: are the two sides waiting on each other?
The answer isn’t quite that simple. Hughes and the Minnesota Wild are still talking, but Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman has reported that his extension could land in the shorter range, somewhere between three and four years.
Makar’s case is different. Colorado would love to get him signed to the full eight-year extension before Sept. 16, when the new CBA trims maximum contract length by a year. If Makar is also after the full eight years - and there’s no sign he isn’t - then both sides have a clear reason to get this done in the next six weeks.
That Sept. 16 date is the first real checkpoint. Missing it wouldn’t be a catastrophe, but it would mean the rules have changed. The Avalanche have been in this kind of spot before, too: Nathan MacKinnon didn’t sign his extension in 2022 until late September, and Devon Toews waited until early October the next year.
Still, the biggest issue here isn’t whether Makar signs, or even exactly when. Joe Sakic has already made it clear he expects Makar to spend his entire career in Colorado. In June, Sakic said deals for players such as Makar and Artturi Lehkonen would probably be handled later in the offseason instead of around July 1.
The real question is the price tag.
More specifically: will Makar become the highest-paid player in NHL history?
San Jose Sharks star Macklin Celebrini just signed a five-year extension that begins in 2027-28 and carries an $18.8 million AAV, topping Leo Carlsson’s league-high $18 million cap hit for 2026-27.
If Makar goes past Celebrini, he’d more than double his current $9 million cap hit. And if he follows the same path Nathan MacKinnon took in 2022 - signing for just $100,000 more than the league’s highest-paid player - then an eight-year contract would come out to $151.2 million in total value, by far the richest deal the NHL has ever seen.
Whether that happens in the next six weeks or later is still unknown. But anything under the projected maximum AAV of $20.8 million would amount to a discount.
For a defenseman widely viewed as the best in the NHL, and one who has a real shot to finish his career as the greatest defenseman the sport has seen, this next contract won’t just affect Colorado. It could reset the market again for elite players across the league.
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Landeskogs recent production and injury history have made his spot anything but automatic, and that has opened the door to a real discussion about where he fits if the Avalanche want their best combinations on the ice. If he cant get back to his earlier form, the possibility of sliding into a bottom-six role is on the table, which would be a major shift for a player long viewed as one of the teams core forwards. [Read more 🡒]