The Colorado Avalanche signed their top draft pick from 2017 to a three-year entry-level contract worth $925,000 per season.
Not only will the Colorado Avalanche be returning to Denver having beaten Calgary for the first time this season, but they also have some reinforcements on the way.
Here is a timely reminder of why you should not feel so bad about falling to 4th overall in the draft lottery in 2019. As we have just signed our 2017 4th overall pick!
Yes, Cale Makar has signed his Entry Level Contract (3 years, $2.8 million, according to CapFriendly) and will shortly join his new teammates in Denver. The news has been widely speculated upon for some time, but now that does mean that the Avalanche will dress a Hobey Baker award winning blueliner in the near future. Take that, Will Butcher!
Let’s see some highlights:
What does Makar bring to the Colorado Avalanche?
Well, aside from the massive offensive upside, which we have all seen (70 points in 75 games for UMass over the past two seasons, plus 8 points in 7 games at the World Juniors) were enough to earn him the Hobey Baker award. That’s the award for the top Collegiate Hockey Player. So that means his skills are elite, but so are his defensive skills, which is a massive plus for the Avalanche.
He brings a want to win attitude to the team as well – I foresee this being a highly positive mindset in the locker room and also helping to bring the best out of the players around him – a quality that certainly shone through him while at UMass.
When does he start?
Well, he signed the contract today (Sunday), so it is totally conceivable that he will dress and play for the Colorado Avalanche against the Flames on Monday evening. Yes, Makar will have a baptism of fire, both literally and figuratively.
Where will he play?
He’s a right sided defenseman, a position which the Colorado Avalanche has a dearth of – Erik Johnson, Tyson Barrie and Connor Timmis are the only Right sided D-Men on the Avs’ roster. Adding Makar gives three fit naturally right sided D-Men to pair with three natural left D.
Obviously, there is a question mark hanging over the head of Samuel Girard and his fitness, but let us assume that all is well there, for the moment. The current pairings look like this:
Sam Girard – Erik Johnson
Nikita Zadorov – Tyson Barrie
Ian Cole – Patrik Nemeth
Now, obviously, someone needs to make space for Makar. Unless Coach Bednar wants to try an eleven forwards and seven defensemen arrangement. I don’t believe that would help the team at all, so I’m not even going to consider it.
Patrik Nemeth steps aside.
As we all know, Nemeth doesn’t do anything fancy with his hockey. He’s a mostly stay at home defenseman, who will leap up on the play when you least expect it. He’s big, he’s strong, but he’s not Cale.
Ian Cole steps aside.
Cole was brought in for his playoff experience and acumen – something that appears to be actually paying off, despite a few rocky moments this season. His point production is already up on the regular season, with 1 assist in 2 games, but he is here for a hard-nosed brand of hockey, doing what it takes to get the job done.
What would Will do?
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Well, with the knowledge that playing Cale Makar in one Colorado Avalanche game this postseason would burn off an entire year of Entry Level contract, I do kind of have the mind to loan him to the Eagles for the postseason, leaving him protected from the Seattle Totems (as I’ve heard whispers on the grapevine call them) in the expansion draft FOR FREE.
So, are we going to sacrifice a depth player to use Makar now for a minimum of 3 games? I suspect the answer is yes, as why else would they sign him?
Unless Sam Girard is more injured than we thought, I would say the better option is to drop Nemeth. Out of the two, Cole has the playoff experience, so giving him the job of protecting Makar could make for an interesting combination on the defensive pairings:
Proposed Defensive Pairs:
Girard – Johnson
Zadorov – Barrie
Cole – Makar
Each pair has a small, offensive minded defenseman, plus a larger, more physical player, too. This gives balance to the lineup, so seems like a simple choice.
The other question here is do you put him on the Powerplay unit? Currently, Coach Bednar favours the four forwards and one defenseman configuaration, with Sam Girard and Tyson Barrie making up the two defensemen selected for Powerplay duty.
Do you tamper with this? I would, as I don’t like the atypical 4-1 configuration, unless you’re doing this to deploy massive slap shots from players like Alex Ovechkin. We’re not, so I would slide Makar into PP2, to man the point there and learn off Barrie, whose records he can start chasing down next season.
Make no mistake; it just became more difficult for Calgary to win this series. Not just because of MacK’s OT winner, but because Colorado got their Cale