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Cale Makar, Colorado Avalanche (Amy Irvin / The Hockey Writers)

Colorado Avalanche 2024-25 Player Report Card: Cale Makar

Originally posted on The Hockey Writers
By Ryan Womeldorf | Last updated Jun 5, 2025 10:00 AM ET

The 2024-25 season is in the books for all but two teams. For the Colorado Avalanche, the feeling of disappointment is one that rings loudly. Faced with another major Game 7, the Avalanche fell short to the Dallas Stars, leading to an offseason of speculation and conjecture.

Before we get into the NHL Draft cycle, it’s time to look at the key contributors for the Avalanche and assign a few grades. Though players like Nathan MacKinnon graded highly, it’s tough to top the season that Cale Makar had. Let’s take a look at his 2024-25 season and how he grades out.

An Incredible Start

Facing a number of roster questions, the beginning of the season fell squarely on the shoulders of MacKinnon and Makar. Both answered the challenge, producing at a torrid pace for the first six weeks of the season. Given the Avalanche’s goaltending issues, they had to play out of their minds to keep the Avalanche afloat.

Through the first month (11 games), Makar had four goals and 19 points. By the time November rolled around, it was evident that both superstars were pressing. Makar’s production dipped a bit, but it was enough to keep him among the league leaders offensively.

Through 38 games in 2024, Makar posted a very impressive 11 goals and 46 points, setting the pace for defensemen. Though the Avalanche eventually righted the ship by making a couple of key acquisitions in net and eventually got healthy, the playoffs may have been in question if not for the contributions of Makar and MacKinnon.

Joining Rare Company

Fast-forward to the end of the season. The Avalanche hit the 100-point mark once again, earning the third spot in the hyper-competitive Central Division. Makar continued producing at a torrid pace, finishing with 92 points, good for ninth in the NHL, ahead of names like William Nylander, Brayden Point, and former teammate Mikko Rantanen.

His efforts were enough to earn him a Ted Lindsay Award nomination, plus his fifth Norris Trophy nomination in his six seasons in the league. More impressively, he finished with 30 goals, becoming just the second player since the 2004-05 lockout to hit the 30-goal mark (Mike Green of the Washington Capitals did it in 2008-09). Only two other defensemen had 20 or more goals, with Zach Werenski coming the closest at 23.

Makar had the kind of offensive performance that few defensemen ever achieve. Finishing with 30 goals and a top-10 point total is insanely impressive, especially given the struggles of the power play (though he had 35 power-play points) and the uphill battle the team faced to start the season.

Grading Makar

Grading Makar comes down to a few key areas. We’ll look at his scoring, defense, playmaking, and teamwork, giving him an overall grade to follow. Here’s how Makar fared:

Cale Makar, Colorado Avalanche (Jess Starr/The Hockey Writers)

If there is a criticism, it would be his defensive game. There were several times that Makar got caught out of position, no doubt because he was trying to do so much offensively. Additionally, net front defense was bad for the Avalanche as a whole, and Makar can’t be excused there. But that’s one flaw in an otherwise flawless season.

2025-26 and Beyond

The Avalanche have a lot of questions to address, namely, what to do about their second line center situation. Thankfully for them, they know they have the best defenseman in the game and an MVP-level player to anchor their forward group. That alone puts them ahead of the pack in terms of year-over-year contention.

For the Avalanche, there is one thing looming when it comes to Makar, and that’s a new contract. He is set to become an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2027 and will be due a hefty raise on his $9 million salary. Considering he’s already shaping up to be an all-time great, there is no amount that would be too much for his services.