It goes without saying, but has been said many times, that the Colorado Avalanche have a superstar in defenseman Cale Makar. His play speaks for itself, and is noticed by everybody who watches or plays hockey. Makar has been named the Norris Trophy winner for a second time in his career on Wednesday.
Looking at the votes, it wasn’t even close.
Makar led all defensemen in points with 92 as well as goals (30) and assists (62). The second closest to those point totals was Zach Werenski with 82. Werenski finished second in goals by a defenseman (23). That shows how dominant of an offensive defenseman Makar is—leading second place by seven goals. Makar missed two games while Werenski missed one and played 109 more minutes that Makar.
One thing that doesn’t necessarily get talked about with Makar due to his legitimate offensive ability being one of the biggest highlights of his game is his ability to take the puck away. He finished the regular season with 60 takeaways, which ranked second in the league.
Makar had 7.8 shots per game last season, .1 less than Werenski, but he also had 9.7 goals above expected, and was second in shooting percentage by a defenseman with 12.2 percent (Colton Parayko of the Blues was first with 12.8 percent).
He became the 6th defenseman to win the Norris trophy twice in the first six years of his NHL career And 14th to win the Norris trophy multiple times in his career.
Makar’s Hall of Fame trajectory is skyrocketing year by year. An NHL Hall of Fame defenseman, Chris Pronger, even acknowledged Makar’s greatness back in March. That’s something that isn’t a huge surprise, but it is still quite noteworthy. It’s one thing to be recognized as the greatest by the average person. It’s another thing to be recognized as one of the best by one of the best in the league’s history.
Makar’s greatness is going to elevate the Colorado Avalanche for years to come. There’s no sense of him slowing down, and other teams across the league always need to be afraid of him. It’s a pleasure to witness and cover Makar’s greatness game by game. Thankfully, he is only 26 years old and we will get to witness it for many more years to come.