The Colorado Avalanche have signed star defenseman Cale Makar to an eight-year, $163.2 million contract extension, his agency announced on Friday.
The deal is the largest in NHL history, as is the $20.4 million average annual value.
The 27-year-old Makar, drafted No. 4 in 2017, is already one of the most decorated players in franchise history. Since debuting in the Stanley Cup playoffs and scoring in his first game, he has won the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s rookie of the year, the Norris Trophy twice as the league’s top defenseman, a Stanley Cup championship and the Conn Smythe Trophy for playoff MVP. He has been a Norris finalist each of the past six seasons. Internationally, he was on Canada’s 4 Nations Face-Off-winning team in 2025 and won silver at the 2026 Olympics.
Makar registered 20 goals and 79 points in 75 games last season, helping the Avalanche to the Presidents’ Trophy with the NHL’s best record. He dealt with an injury in the playoffs that kept him out of the first two games of the Western Conference final, which Colorado lost in four games to the Vegas Golden Knights. In 2024-25, he won the Norris and became the league’s first defenseman to score 30 goals in a season since Mike Green in 2008-09.
Arguably, Makar’s most impressive season came in 2021-22. He won the Norris with 28 goals and 86 points in 77 games, then had 29 points in 20 playoff games as Colorado captured the Stanley Cup.
“We’re lucky because we’re watching greatness,” then-teammate Erik Johnson said during that postseason run.
Makar is entering the final season of a six-year deal annually worth $9 million, after which his extension will kick in.
This story will be updated.
