Cale Makar Signed for $20.4 Million a Year and Reset the NHL's Entire Contract Ceiling

The Colorado Avalanche announced Friday that Cale Makar has signed an eight-year contract extension worth $163.2 million, an average annual value of $20.4 million. That makes the 27-year-old defenseman the highest-paid player in NHL history and the first to carry a cap hit of $20 million or more. The extension runs through the 2034-35 season.

Makar was entering the final year of a six-year deal that carried a $9 million cap hit, a contract widely regarded as one of the best value deals in the sport. That era is over, and the number Colorado just set will anchor every negotiation in the league for the next several years.

Why this number, and why now

Two forces produced this contract.

The first is the salary cap itself. The league's new collective bargaining agreement has the cap rising substantially over the coming seasons, and every long-term deal signed in this window is priced against a much larger future cap than the one in place today. As a percentage of the cap, Makar's deal is aggressive but not unprecedented. As a raw number, it is the largest in league history.

The second is that Makar has no true positional comparable. He is the best defenseman in hockey by consensus, he drives play at a rate normally reserved for elite forwards, and he does it while playing the most demanding minutes on his team. There is no market discount for defensemen when the defenseman in question produces at a first-line forward's rate.

Colorado had leverage in only one direction: the extension window. Makar had one season left and could have taken the negotiation into the year. Getting it done in August, before camp, removes the distraction and locks in a price before another team could bid.

What it means for Colorado's roster math

The Avalanche have now committed enormous long-term money to their core, having previously extended Martin Necas on a reported eight-year deal worth $92 million. Combine that with Nathan MacKinnon's existing deal and the top of Colorado's cap sheet is among the most concentrated in the league.

That is a defensible way to build a team in a rising-cap environment and it is not without cost. Concentrated cap allocation means thin depth, and thin depth is how contenders lose playoff series to injuries.

The near-term picture is unaffected. Makar's new deal does not begin until 2027-28, so Colorado plays the coming season with his existing $9 million hit and full flexibility.

Fantasy hockey implications

Makar remains the first defenseman off every fantasy board and the only one worth considering in the first two rounds of a standard draft. This contract does not change his role, his ice time, or his power-play deployment. It confirms all three.

What it does confirm for fantasy purposes is Colorado's commitment to running its offense through him. A team paying a defenseman $20.4 million is a team that will put him on the ice for every power play, every offensive-zone start it can manufacture, and every late-game situation where it needs a goal.

That matters in a specific way this season. The NHL is moving to an 84-game schedule, which adds two games of counting stats to every player's total. For a player whose value is built on points from the back end, two extra games of first-unit power-play time is a meaningful bump to his season-long ceiling.

The players downstream matter too. Colorado's forwards on the top power-play unit benefit from a defenseman who is the primary distributor, and that is a reason to bump the Avalanche's top-six wingers slightly in drafts.

The Verdexed model take

Verdexed's model values contracts by what they say about deployment rather than by whether they represent good value for the team, and by that measure this deal is unambiguous. Makar's projected ice time, power-play share, and offensive-zone usage all sit at the top of the league, and the extension removes any scenario where those decline for non-injury reasons.

On the team side, the model's read is that Colorado remains a legitimate contender whose risk profile is concentrated rather than diversified. The Avalanche's projected outcomes are strongly dependent on the health of a small number of players, which produces both a high ceiling and a fatter downside tail than most contenders carry.

For the Norris Trophy market, Makar should be a short favorite every season he is healthy, and the value in that market is almost never on him. The value is on whoever finishes second, because voters have shown a willingness to spread the award around when the incumbent's raw totals dip even slightly.

What it means for the rest of the league

Every player currently negotiating an extension just got a new reference point. Agents will cite the $20.4 million figure, and teams will respond that Makar is a unique case. Both are correct, and the number still moves the market.

The players most affected are the small group of superstars whose deals expire in the next two seasons. Their price just went up, and the teams negotiating with them now have to decide whether the cap curve justifies matching it.

What is next

Colorado opens camp in September with its franchise defenseman signed and its captaincy questions settled. The 2026-27 season starts September 29, and the Avalanche will spend it as a contender with a clean cap sheet and a very large bill arriving the following summer.

For fantasy managers, the takeaway is simpler. Draft Makar first among defensemen and do not overthink it.