Cover Cale: Avalanche’s Makar features on NHL 24
Aug 14, 2023, 9:30 AM | Updated: 9:37 am
We all know it’s a very special time in Denver sports with the Nuggets and Avalanche winning titles in the past two seasons and that success has translated to all sorts of fun in the world of video games.
Nikola Jokic is the highest-rated player in this year’s NBA 2k and EA Sports announced on Monday that Cale Makar will be on the cover of this year’s NHL video game.
All Hail Cale 🥬 #NHL24
Stanley Cup Champ, Norris Winner, and your official NHL 24 Cover Athlete
See the full reveal 8/16
➡️ https://t.co/PM1LlFQRAu pic.twitter.com/OFLox3Fym8— EA SPORTS NHL (@EASPORTSNHL) August 14, 2023
“It’s so cool,” Makar told ESPN. “When they were considering me to be a part of this, it was just kinda like a ‘wow’ moment. You grow up, you play all these games.”
Makar is just the third defenseman in the last two decades to be the cover athlete, joining Dion Phaneuf who was on NHL 09 and P.K. Subban who was on NHL 19.
It’s that stardom carried by play that has already won him a Norris, Conn Smythe, Calder and Stanley Cup that draws Makar comparisons to legends like Bobby Orr.
“[Cale] is a massively successful player already at such a young part of his career. We feel he’s the kind of player that no matter who you support, you can’t help but appreciate what he brings to the ice,” said EA Sports’ Mike Inglehart in the same story to ESPN. “There was a natural fit to not just what he’s accomplished, and what people appreciate about him as a player, but also how he embodies some of the features in our gameplay.”
The game is expected to drop in early October, just before the Avs get rolling again and try to rebound from a Stanley Cup hangover season. Meanwhile, Makar finished as the third-best defenseman in the NHL last season, a third-straight year of being a finalist for the Norris. Again, as one of the league’s top defender he’s added 196 points in 181 regular season games over that time.
