The Avalanche Know Cale Makar Is Staying—Now Comes the Hard Part
With a long-term extension for Cale Makar widely expected, the Avalanche must decide whether a record-breaking contract is the price of keeping their franchise cornerstone and building another Stanley Cup contender.
Video Transcript
Surprised by this move that the, the Predators are sort of in buyer mode there, Drew?
And, you know, what, what should Preds fans know about Ross Colton and the kind of game he plays aside from, you know, we know he, he definitely does like to lay the body.
I mean, I think it was a great move by the Predators, and I think that they have to be in win-now mode just based on the construction of their roster.
Like, they're not getting any younger.
Josi's getting older, obviously Stamkos, and they do have some decent young kids.
Evangelista's come up, played real well.
But I think that, like, he di- I think he was healthy scratch this year for, like, the first two games for the Colorado Avalanche, and then returned to the lineup.
And for me, he's a guy that's so valuable because he's shown he can score historically, but I think in Colorado, obviously, was not getting a lot of offensive situations.
So I, I think at that cap number, he's a guy I would take on my roster all day.
he's played also, like, in Tampa, in Colorado on some of the best teams, and I think he'll even probably have some better offensive numbers when he gets more opportunities playing on a worse team.
Yeah, I actually thought that it was too bad that Colorado didn't have as long a, a, a playoff run as we expected because Ross Colton's the type of player I think that when you go far, you need that secondary and tertiary scoring, and he would be the perfect guy, as he showed, you know, when he was in Tampa Bay.
When I saw this, you know, 'cause this is the first, trade between Joe Sakic and Chris Mc- MacFarland, who used to work together with the Avs, I was kinda joking.
This is like when, like, you know, a, a parent buys the, the first week of groceries for a kid moving into their dorm so they don't have to worry about it.
This is like Joe Sakic being like, "I got you, Chris.
Let me help you out here.
You know, you're a good guy.
you know, let me give you Ross Colton.
If you guys do turn around and make the playoffs, he'll be a, a nice cog for you."
Yeah, I never th- I, I completely, you know, slipped my mind that, yeah, you're right, Chris MacFarland's there.
So who do you trade with?
You trade with the people you know.
Yeah, yeah.
So this one does make a lot of sense.
He was for sure his first call.
We got to unload some cap space, and then he's obviously a good player.
So that probably could've been the shortest trade negotiation in history.
That, that 4 million now that, the Avs have saved, does that just go to paying Nazem Kadri for next season, or do they have to, do you think they go out and get any reinforcements there, guys?
I don't know how many reinforcements they need, right?
Like, they did so much last year and, uh- Right and even the year before.
A- a- and again, like, Makar and MacKinnon were hurt.
That's the biggest reason why they got swept by Vegas.
I, to me, it's just like run it back if you're Colorado.
There was nothing wrong.
Yeah.
4 million dollars and a couple draft.
Yeah, I mean, I do think if you look at Joe Sakic's press conference, he was like, "We were the best team in the NHL for," I don't know how many weeks this season was, but call it every week of the season except one week.
So I don't think- Yeah they need to make too many drastic changes.
So I mean, I think if you're them, you just run it back.
Obviously, you probably try and add, a little bit, like, in the lower half of your lineup and probably just try and get a little bit cheaper there than where they're currently at.
I mean, I think that's clearly what they did moving Colton out, who played not super meaningful minutes at that cap hit.
