Roughly a month after the Sharks’ third-year phenom inked the richest contract in NHL history, the hockey world has its first $20 million player: Colorado Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar.
That number only sharpens the case for why Makar matters in the hobby. The 27-year-old has long been regarded as one of the best defensemen ever to play the game, and his card market is starting to reflect that status in a sport where the biggest values usually belong to the scorers.
For years, hockey cards have tilted toward the names that light up the scoreboard - Celebrini, Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid among them. That’s been the hobby’s default setting: goals, dramatic finishes and highlight-reel offense tend to drive attention. Defensemen have rarely broken through that ceiling, even the elite ones.
Makar is different. He’s the rare blueliner who checks every box, and the numbers and trophies back it up.
He has 507 points in 470 career games, along with two Norris Trophies, a Conn Smythe, a Stanley Cup and a Calder. Colorado is viewed as a Final favorite, and Makar’s game - dynamic with the puck, suffocating without it - gives him the kind of all-around appeal that collectors notice fast.
The biggest public sales of his cards say plenty about where he sits in the market. Both top sales to date feature the hobby’s ultimate flex: the NHL logo taken straight from his jersey and signed by Makar.
His rookie-year Upper Deck Exquisite Collection NHL Shield, graded BGS 7.5, sold for $22,800 on April 30, 2022. That came two months before he won playoff-MVP honors for the champion Avalanche.
Another card that stands near the top of the pile is his 2019 Upper Deck Ultimate Collection Rookie Tandem Shields, which pairs Makar with Nathan MacKinnon. One of those dual-shield cards, in a PSA Authentic slab, reached $16,800 at auction as Colorado pushed toward the Stanley Cup in June 2022.
Makar’s most actively traded rookie card, though, is his Young Guns #493 from Upper Deck’s flagship product. Young Guns cards have long been the hobby’s measuring stick for star power, and even though Makar has more than two dozen base rookie cards, this is the one collectors keep circling.
Card Ladder says his top five cards by volume are all raw or graded copies of that 2019 flagship rookie. A BGS 9.5 sold for $415 on August 30, its highest recorded price over the last two years and 25.26% higher over the last 12 months.
The PSA 10 version has also been moving. It’s up 4.94% over the last 90 days to $674.50, and it has climbed 46.27% over the past year. During Colorado’s 2022 Stanley Cup run, one PSA 10 fetched as much as $1,022, which is why another deep playoff push could send his ceiling even higher.
His best autograph rookie from SP Authentic carries a much bigger price in top grade. Card Ladder estimates a PSA 10 Future Watch Auto, numbered to 999, at $3,160, based on the last two sales of $2,951 and $3,120. That’s below the card’s peak of $4,275 in 2022, but it still marks a 68.60% rise over the last two years.
Makar’s true RPA from The Cup is one of the premium cards in his run. It’s limited to 99 copies, and the swatches matter. The most recent three-color version in a PSA 9 slab sold for $8,460, which was the fifth-highest public sale, according to Card Ladder.
For collectors who want a chase without diving straight into the deepest end of the market, Makar also has one of the more creative rookie sets around: 2019 SP Game Used Draft Day Marks. The five-card run spells out his last name, with 35 signed copies of each letter, including 70 “A” cards. Raw copies have sold for as little as $500 apiece, while graded versions have gone for about twice that.
And if you’re going to spell a name card by card, “Makar” is a lot easier - and cheaper - than “Celebrini.”
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