Cale Makar’s ice time this week is drawing a closer look, and with the regular season less than four weeks away, the Avalanche star’s status has become something to monitor.
The concern is simple: Makar may still be working through some kind of injury. According to Brennan Vogt of Hockey Mountain High, the two-time Norris Trophy winner skated Wednesday morning for about 30 minutes with Avalanche skills coach Mark Popovic. Once the main group came out, Makar was done for the day, and he did not skate Thursday.
That kind of setup can raise eyebrows. When a player skates by himself and then skips the next group, it can look like a rehab session. Makar also was not wearing a red non-contact jersey, though that by itself doesn’t tell the whole story.
There’s precedent for reading too much into early skates. Vogt and I, when we were both writing primarily for Mile High Hockey, reported last season that goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood didn’t quite look like himself during some of the early optional sessions.
He wasn’t in a red non-contact jersey then, either, and it later came out that he had offseason surgery to fix a lower-body injury. Blackwood eventually showed up at later skates in a red non-contact jersey and began taking shots again in early October.
Still, there’s no need to jump straight to conclusions.
Makar was training earlier in the offseason with Nathan MacKinnon in Canada, and it hasn’t even been a week since he signed his record eight-year, $163.2 million extension. That deal carries a $20.4 million AAV and begins with the 2027-28 season.
He has also been busy since signing, including a press conference at the Inverness Denver Resort. So it’s possible he’s just easing back into a full workload before ramping things up.
Or there could be a minor issue at play.
Either way, with the regular season starting in just under four weeks, Makar’s next time on the ice is worth watching closely.
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