Colorado Avalanche: Cale Makar Visits UMass for Hobey Baker Ceremony

Colorado Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar returned to his former college to take part in a Hobey Baker banner ceremony.

Following his win of the Hobey Baker Award earlier this year Colorado Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar returned to the University of Massachusetts Amherst for a banner ceremony in celebration of his win.

The Hobey Baker Award is given to the NCAA top men’s player and so far Makar is the only player from UMass to ever win it. He’s also only the 8th defenseman to take the award since its inception in 1981.

During his time at UMass, Makar achieved a lot of success which contributed to his win. Last season he was named captain of the squad and he recorded 49 points (16 goals, 33 assists) in 41 games. The season before that, while he was a Freshman, he earned 21 points (5 goals, 6 assists) in 34 games.

Under his captaincy Makar lead his team to the Frozen Four final and although they lost to the University of Minnesota Duluth it was clear Makar was a big part of the team making it that far.

As well as taking the Hobey Baker award this year, Makar was also named NCAA (Hockey East) Player of the Year, also the first time the title has been awarded to a UMass player.

It’s no surprise that he was welcomed back to UMass with a huge round of applause.

It’s clear that the college is proud of everything Makar has achieved, both while he was playing with them and the time he has spent with the Colorado Avalanche. The Chancellor of the university took the opportunity to take a selfie with Makar and the trophy.

After the banner ceremony the crowd was treated to a tribute video for Makar, showing just how much he contributed during his time at UMass.

After the banner ceremony UMass went on to have an incredible game, beating the Maine Black Bears 5-1.

https://twitter.com/UMassHockey/status/1203168986810195968

It’s no surprise that just a couple of days after winning the Hobey Baker award, Makar signed an entry level contract with the Colorado Avalanche and went on to score his first NHL goal with his first shot in his first game.

He is clearly a very special player. In his first regular season with the Colorado Avalanche he has 28 points (8 goals and 20 assists) in 29 games and was named the league’s Rookie of the Month for November.

We’re excited to see what the rest of the season will bring for Cale Makar. He certainly exciting to watch, and deserving of all the awards he’s received so far.

At the time of writing we’re still waiting for an update on Cale Makar as he left the game against the Boston Bruins early after being checked by Brad Marchand.