The absence of Cale Makar in the early stages of the Western Conference Final against the Vegas Golden Knights was heavily covered. Even though the team still lost with Makar, his absence was evident.
Although it doesn’t help them at this point as they were eliminated in four games, the team has received good news about Makar and, in fact, the rest of the team’s players who missed some times with injuries late.
General manager Joe Sakic said in his end-of-season press conference on Thursday two great things regarding defenseman Cale Makar. Not only is Sakic confident that Makar will finish the rest of his career with the Avalanche, but he also stated that everybody will be ready to go for training camp 2026. That idea didn’t seem fully realistic given the fact that he missed two of those games against Vegas.
With that being said, it will be interesting to see how much Makar plays in the preseason. The NHL is shortening the preseason to four games maximum for each team in 2026-27. Last year, teams played between six to eight preseason games.
While it would be good to get Makar exposed to some physicality before the regular season, they’d obviously want to keep it light if Makar isn’t fully healed. After his injury, Ramos Law founder, Dr. Joseph Ramos, said that Makar “literally has a floating clavical in his chest.”
On the bright side, Makar is getting top-notch care for his injury, as those sorts of things are in place for athletes. Team doctors know him well, and that can go a long way.
Getting off to a good start during a season is crucial. The Avalanche showed how dominant they were early on this past season, and held the title o the league’s best team for the entire year up until the Vegas series. We know they are capable of dominating in the regular season, as they defeated every single team at least once. But, the big question is whether or not they can get over the hump.
Makar’s presence will be key in that and we will want to see him at full strength not only for training camp, but for the regular season as well as the postseason.
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