The Colorado Avalanche have the best defenseman in the entire world in Cale Makar and the hope is that he’ll remain a member of the team for his entire career. The 26 year old has won two Norris trophies at his young age and there is no sign or reason to believe that his track record will not carry over for many years to come.
During the 2021-22 and 2024-25 seasons is when the Norris was handed to the superstar defenseman. During the earlier season, Makar played in just 77 games, missing five. In that year, he had 28 goals and 58 assists while finishing as a plus-48 player, the highest plus-minus of his career. He also contributed to nine power play goals, and 34 overall power play points. He finished the season with the second-highest shot total of his career to date (240 shots), while his current personal best happened in 2024-25 (246 shots).
This season, Makar is on pace for 25.6 goals and 71.7 assists. Unfortunately, that goal number comes up several short of his current best of 30, which he managed to do last season. If he reaches 71 assists, it would set a new career-high for him, as his current best of 69 assists happened in 2023-24.
Cale Makar can reach Bobby Orr greatness by the end of his career
There are some strong candidates for being labeled as a star defenseman. Some others include newly-traded Quinn Hughes (Minnesota Wild), Zach Werenski (Columbus Blue Jackets), Miro Heiskanen (Dallas Stars) and Victor Hedman (Tampa Bay Lightning). However, I think that it would take something catastrophic for Makar not to come home with the Norris trophy again.
Jakob Chychrun of the Washington Capitals currently has 12 goals (two more than Makar) and 14 assists. I’m not sure if Chychrun’s pace of 30.7 goals is going to hold up, but you never know, I suppose. That averages out to be 0.375 a game.
It’s not really possible to accurately predict how many trophies a player is going to finish his career with, but the fact that Makar is still just 27 years old gives me hope that he’ll finish his career with at least six or seven Norris trophies, which wouldn’t quite reach Bobby Orr level, but it would put him right up there, just short of Orr’s eight trophies.
No matter how many Norris trophies Makar finishes his career with, nobody is going to argue how great and dominating of a defenseman he has been in his early-mid-20’s. The Colorado Avalanche had an easy choice to make with the fourth pick in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft. Though they could have taken a guy like Elias Petterson, nobody is raising an eyebrow with the fact that they chose Makar.