{"id":575547,"date":"2026-04-01T17:07:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T17:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/575547\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T17:07:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T17:07:08","slug":"latest-on-cale-makar-pro-hockey-rumors-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/575547\/","title":{"rendered":"Latest On Cale Makar \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

4\/1\/26:\u00a0Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar addressed Makar\u2019s status Wednesday morning, telling Altitude Sports<\/a> that Makar is going to \u201cmiss some time here\u201d but that the injury overall is \u201cnothing serious.\u201d Bednar stressed that the team is prioritizing ensuring Makar is 100% ready for the team\u2019s playoff run when it comes to his recovery.<\/p>\n

Reading between the lines, it appears the club is unwilling to risk rushing Makar back into the lineup when the team is already the likely Presidents\u2019 Trophy winner, and the only thing at stake left for Makar this season is competing for a third Norris Trophy.<\/p>\n

3\/31\/26: Colorado Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar<\/a> has suffered an upper-body injury and is set to miss some time, reports ESPN\u2019s Emily Kaplan. According to Kaplan<\/a>, Makar\u2019s injury is \u201cnot believed to be long term\u201d but the team is still evaluating his recovery timeline. The Athletic\u2019s Pierre LeBrun reported<\/a> that Makar will \u201clikely miss a few games in order to get him to 100 percent before the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Makar\u2019s injury has implications both for the Avalanche and rival teams. For Colorado, they are forced to play at least the next few games without their top defenseman. Not only is Makar the Avalanche\u2019s top blueliner, but he\u2019s widely considered to be one of, if not the best defenseman in the world.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old is a two-time Norris Trophy winner and has also won the Conn Smythe Trophy. His 2025-26 season has been strong, as he has 75 points in 73 games, marking his fifth consecutive campaign scoring above a point-per-game rate. While the uncharacteristic struggles of the Avalanche power play have lowered his scoring rate from last season, he\u2019s still among the league\u2019s highest-scoring defensemen.<\/p>\n

Makar plays a massive role for the Avalanche, as one might expect, averaging nearly 25 minutes of ice time per game, including 4:10 on the power play and 1:58 per game short-handed. The Avalanche will need to find a way to replace those minutes while Makar is absent. It\u2019s likely Devon Toews<\/a> will play an even greater role with Makar absent, while veteran Brent Burns<\/a> could get a turn on the top power play unit.<\/p>\n

Beyond Colorado, this news has implications for other teams, namely those with defensemen vying for the Norris Trophy. Earlier this month, Makar tied with Columbus Blue Jackets star Zach Werenski<\/a> in votes for the Norris Trophy in the anonymous poll of PHWA voters conducted by ESPN\u2019s Greg Wyshynski<\/a>. Given Werenski and Makar appear to be neck-and-neck for the Norris Trophy this season (Werenski finished No. 2 in voting behind Makar last year), Makar\u2019s injury could end up being the factor that separates the two.<\/p>\n

The injury is likely to cost Makar a few games, and those few games missed could cost him the chance to surpass Werenski in scoring. Consequently, this injury could be the difference-maker that allows the Blue Jackets defenseman to secure his first Norris Trophy. Of course, there are still a little over two weeks of games to be played, so there is room for things to change. But based on the way things have been tracking, this injury could be significant from an end-of-year awards perspective.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"4\/1\/26:\u00a0Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar addressed Makar\u2019s status Wednesday morning, telling Altitude Sports that Makar is going to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":574436,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49,45339,48,758,5718,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-575547","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-cale-makar","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-colorado-avalanche","12":"tag-injury","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}