Cale Makar's next contract is turning into the tensest storyline of the summer for the Colorado Avalanche.
On Tuesday morning, longtime NHL insider Adrian Hernandez laid out why nobody should assume this one gets done quietly.
Hernandez spent months insisting Mikko Rantanen would stay in Colorado. That call blew up.
Rantanen is now wearing a Dallas Stars sweater carrying a $12,000,000 cap hit, nowhere near Colorado.
Hernandez isn't predicting a Makar trade this time. But he says the leverage question around this deal is very real.
Makar is playing out a deal with a $9,000,000 cap hit right now, a number that already looks light compared to what's coming.
The Avalanche have publicly said they expect him to be reasonable. Hernandez calls that a dangerous setup when the player holds all the cards.
September 15 deadline could decide Makar's leverage play
Hernandez is watching September 15 closely. He says it marks the cutoff for locking in an eight-year term on a new deal.
If that date slides by without a signature, Hernandez says that's already Makar using his leverage.
His math lands on five years at $20,000,000 annually. Even he admits he'd love to be wrong about that number.
Handing a defenseman $20,000,000 a season is a gamble, even for someone this good. Colorado has to weigh that against losing him for nothing.
Makar is coming off a season with 79 points in 75 games, including 20 goals and a plus-32 rating for the NHL's top-ranked team.
Over his last 10 games, he's posted five points on four goals and an assist, adding a plus-4 rating in that stretch.
In his last five, though, he's gone completely quiet. No goals, no assists, and a minus-1 rating to show for it.
That's the tension sitting underneath this whole negotiation. A generational defenseman, a cooling stat line, and a front office already burned once this year.
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September 15 is closing fast. If Makar walks past that date without a deal, Jared Bednar's locker room will feel the weight of it long before training camp.
Should the Avalanche pay Cale Makar $20,000,000 a year to keep him?
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