Cale Makar says Avalanche’s championship window is extended

Cale Makar, 27, sat shoulder to shoulder with team-builder and franchise legend Joe Sakic and was real direct about the Stanley Cup window

BY JAKE SHAPIRO

Aug 31, 2026, 4:15 PM

Follow on Google News

Watch: Cale Makar’s record-setting contract will look like a bargain for the Avalanche as the years go by. | Shapiro and Piro | 1 min

Cale Makar was measured, humble and deflected credit Monday during his contract extension press conference, until somebody asked him about the Avalanche’s championship window and he started being direct.

Makar, 27, sat shoulder to shoulder with team-builder and franchise legend Joe Sakic. The league’s first $20 million-a-year player — signing an eight-year, $163.2 million extension on Friday — made it clear the goal is plural when it comes to rings.

“Everybody talks about this window that we’re in right now and the ability that we have to win,” Makar said. “Yeah, we feel that. But at the same time, I think that window is extended.”

Makar, who is only chasing Hall of Fame ghosts at the defensive position in the history of hockey, put his faith in Super Joe, KSE and Denver to give him one of the best resumes in the history of the game. He pretty much said it, just without the context of that weight.

“I think my term of the deal should reflect kind of how I feel this team should go success-wise and the opportunity that we’re going to have over that time to win championships,” Makar said. “That’s the decision and why I did that — because I felt that the resources that they put into us and the ability that we have to develop those players and get good players will keep us in the championship hunt for years to come. As a player, that’s truly all you can ask for.”

It’s worth sitting with that thought.

In a league where the trend has shifted toward shorter, mid-term deals that let superstars get paid again sooner, Makar went the other direction. He locked in for the full eight years — possibly the last eight-year extension before the new CBA drops the ceiling to seven years next month.

Makar did it, he said, as a deliberate trade-off: long-term stability for the franchise in exchange for long-term contention for himself.

The Avalanche hoisted the Cup in 2022, when Makar won the Conn Smythe as postseason MVP. Last season ended in the Western Conference finals when Makar missed the first two games of the Vegas series with an injury — a loss Sakic called a primary reason the Avs were eliminated. Colorado has the pieces at the top, reflected by the team once again having some of the best odds to win it all. But it comes down to depth, as told by the team’s success in 2022 and basically every other cup-winner.

“To find pieces around that — those depths that are going to outperform in playoffs, that are going to bring us up even more — because depth wins championships,” Makar said. “It’s exciting when we have all the top guys like that, but when we have a full team of guys, I think that’s the true confidence that it gave me to basically be here hopefully for the long, long haul.”

The last answer from Cale Makar might be the best one, talking about taking a big chunk of money but also knowing other guys on the roster have been paid. He added they’ve won one Stanley Cup but really want to do it again. pic.twitter.com/Xn3x63zHQI

— Will Petersen (@PetersenWill) August 31, 2026

Sakic’s thesis wasn’t entirely the same. You need superstars before you can worry about depth, he argued, and every hockey club in the world would love Makar — no matter how much they’re paying him

The story is simple: Sakic is happy to keep Cale, and Makar is happy to put his trust in all things Colorado. He knows that his $20.4 million a yearas a cap percentage will shrink as the ceiling rises and he even joked that he “fully expects Nate (MacKinnon) to double” his number in four or five years. Makar and Sakic both know the game is changing, but no matter how long they play hockey, players like Cale don’t come around too often.

Depth wins championships — the NHL’s highest-paid player said it himself — now Colorado has nine years to build around Makar and MacKinnon.