Cale Makar Contract Extension Could Hit $20.8 Million

The Cale Makar contract extension is the biggest decision hanging over the Colorado Avalanche.

And the math should make everyone in Denver a little nervous.

The two-time Norris Trophy winner is closing out a six-year, $54 million deal that pays him just $9 million against the cap (CapWages). That bargain runs through 2026-27, and what replaces it could reset the entire NHL market.

A $9 million bargain running out

Makar signed the six-year, $54 million contract on July 24, 2021 (CapWages). It carries a flat $9 million cap hit in all six seasons and keeps him in an Avs sweater through 2026-27, after which he becomes an unrestricted free agent (CBS News Colorado). Spotrac's cap table already has that $9 million eating 9.42% of the league cap in a given season (Spotrac).

Now weigh that price against the player.

Colorado Hockey Now describes a 27-year-old, two-time Norris winner making $9 million a year and suggests the highest-paid-player label is "purely up to him" (Colorado Hockey Now).

That's a franchise defenseman on a steal of a number. And it's the quiet reason the roster around him has worked. When the deal ends, the luxury ends with it.

How much will Cale Makar's extension cost?

Start at the ceiling. A Sports Illustrated cap explainer puts the NHL cap at $104 million for 2026-27. And with a max AAV of 20% of the cap, Makar's theoretical ceiling sits at about $20.8 million per season (Sports Illustrated).

House of Hockey landed on the same $20.8 million figure (House of Hockey).

The reporting underneath is moving the same direction. Elliotte Friedman, via Mile High Sticking, has the cap climbing from $96 million toward that $104 million ceiling, with rumors of Makar coming in around or north of $20 million a year (Mile High Sticking).

Here's the saner floor, and it's still enormous. The Denver Post calculated that $17 million per season would eat 15.04% of a $113 million cap, a hair under Nathan MacKinnon's 15.09% cap share in 2023-24 (The Denver Post). Yahoo Sports expects this extension to reset the contract market (Yahoo Sports). I'd take the under on $20.8 million and still expect a number that makes you blink.

When can Cale Makar sign his extension?

The door is already open.

Under the CBA rules for players entering the last year of their deal, Makar became eligible to sign an extension on July 1 (Last Word on Sports).

The deadline that actually matters is September 15.

Per Colorado Hockey Now, the Avalanche must get Makar signed before September 16, 2026 to use the current maximum term of eight years. Because the new CBA drops the max extension with your own club from eight years to seven after that date (Colorado Hockey Now).

Sports Illustrated cited a mid-August count of 28 days left on the eight-year option (Sports Illustrated). House of Hockey flags September 16 as the day the new agreement takes full effect (House of Hockey).

That lost year is not a technicality. One fewer year of term on a franchise defenseman is one fewer year of certainty. And every day past that date hands the player more control over the process.

The Avalanche window runs through Makar

There's room to get it done. A HockeyBuzz cap breakdown from early March projects GM Chris MacFarland with $42 million in cap space for 2027, the summer the current deal expires (HockeyBuzz). But a line is forming at that window. Pro Hockey Rumors lists Makar among the expiring contracts alongside Brent Burns at $850,000 base plus $2.15 million in bonuses and Artturi Lehkonen at $4.5 million (Pro Hockey Rumors).

So that's the real window question.

Colorado isn't choosing between Makar and a title run. It's choosing how much of the roster around him survives the jump from $9 million to $17 million and change. My take: pay him. Two-time Norris winners don't reach the open market. And a 27-year-old who drives the game at both ends is worth a MacKinnon-sized slice of the cap.

The calendar tells the whole story. The $9 million bargain dies in 2027 no matter what. And the leap to something between $17 million and $20.8 million was always coming. What to watch now: does the eight-year extension land before that September 16 cutoff, or does the entire season turn into a free agency countdown?