{"id":256925,"date":"2026-08-09T20:30:41","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T20:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/09\/elliotte-friedman-points-out-biggest-obstacle-in-cale-makars-contract-negotiations-with-the-avalanche\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T20:30:41","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T20:30:41","slug":"elliotte-friedman-points-out-biggest-obstacle-in-cale-makars-contract-negotiations-with-the-avalanche","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/09\/elliotte-friedman-points-out-biggest-obstacle-in-cale-makars-contract-negotiations-with-the-avalanche\/","title":{"rendered":"Elliotte Friedman points out biggest obstacle in Cale Makar&#8217;s contract negotiations with the Avalanche"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"article-content\" data-postid=\"5202494\" data-slug-id=\"2820095\">\n<div class=\"vidazoo-player-container\">\n<span class=\"vidazoo-close-btn  hidden \"><br \/>\n<img data-lazy=\"\/\/staticg.sportskeeda.com\/cmc-predictor\/v2\/cross-icon.png?w=40\" width=\"20\" height=\"20\" alt=\"close\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Cale Makar&#8217;s next contract with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportskeeda.com\/us\/nhl\/colorado-avalanche\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-is-sponsored=\"false\">Colorado Avalanche<\/a> could depend on how many years he wants to sign for. NHL insider Elliotte Friedman said the Avalanche expect to reach a deal with their star defenseman, but the term could be one of the biggest issues in the talks.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on NHL Tonight, Friedman said Colorado is confident the two sides will get a deal done. NHL Rumour Report later shared his comments on X.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cThe Avalanche said that we are gonna get this done; I think one of the big questions about him is going to be term\u201d &#8211; NHL Tonight (8\/7)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><template id=\"also-read-articles-template\"><\/p>\n<p><\/template><\/p>\n<p>Makar is entering the final season of his six-year, $54 million contract. He became eligible to sign an extension on July 1. The Avalanche have until September 15 to give Makar an eight-year extension. After that date, the new collective bargaining agreement will limit contract extensions to seven years.<\/p>\n<p>The salary cap for 2026-27 is set at $104 million, which puts the maximum AAV for a player at about $20.8 million. Cale Makar is not expected to get that much, but his new salary will still be an important part of Colorado&#8217;s cap picture.<\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<h2>Joe Sakic expects Cale Makar to remain in Colorado<\/h2>\n<p>Avalanche president of hockey operations and general manager Joe Sakic said the team has already started contract talks with Cale Makar&#8217;s representatives and expects the defenseman to remain in Colorado for the rest of his career.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cCale is going to finish his career here,\u201d Sakic said, per NHL.com. \u201cWe&#8217;re already talking to his agent, so we&#8217;re confident that something&#8217;s going to get worked out at some point. I mean, he&#8217;s got another year, but this summer we expect to have him signed.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>He added:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;The core guys are still here, so we&#8217;re going to shoot and try and win another Cup next year. Everybody was disappointed. I won&#8217;t say anger was the thing, but to a man, they want to bring this back. They want to bring the group back, and they want to try and do it again.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Cale Makar is expected to receive a significant raise on his next contract. Reports have suggested that his new deal could approach $20 million in average annual value, which would make him the NHL&#8217;s highest-paid player.<\/p>\n<p>The 27-year-old finished the 2025-26 season with 79 points (20 goals, 59 assists) in 81 games and reached 500 career NHL points during the campaign. He finished third on the Avalanche in scoring and was named a Norris Trophy finalist for the sixth straight year.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-post-rating-widget\">\n<p><template id=\"post-rating-feedback-modal-template\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"post-rating-feedback-feedback-box\">\n<div class=\"post-rating-feedback-content\">\n<div class=\"post-rating-feedback-data\">\n<p>Why did you not like this content?<\/p>\n<p><textarea id=\"dislike-feedback-text\" rows=\"4\" placeholder=\"Please type your feedback...\"\/>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\n<button class=\"close\">Cancel<\/button><br \/>\n<button class=\"submit\">Submit<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/template><\/p>\n<div class=\"post-rating-widget-parent hidden\">\n<div class=\"rating-parent-container\">\n<div class=\"rating-content-holder\">\n<p>Was this article helpful?<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-rating-action-container\">\n<div class=\"like-container\">\n<button class=\"post-rating-like-button post-rating-button\" data-action=\"like\" title=\"like article\"><br \/>\n<img class=\"post-like-image post-rating-image\" data-lazy=\"\/\/staticg.sportskeeda.com\/like-articles\/upvote-icon-grey.svg\" height=\"20\" width=\"20\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"like selected\"\/><br \/>\n<\/button>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"dislike-container\">\n<button class=\"post-rating-dislike-button post-rating-button\" data-action=\"dislike\" title=\"dislike article\"><br \/>\n<img class=\"post-dis-like-image post-rating-image\" data-lazy=\"\/\/staticg.sportskeeda.com\/like-articles\/upvote-icon-grey.svg\" height=\"20\" width=\"20\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"avatar selected\"\/><br \/>\n<\/button>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\nThank You for feedback\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\n<span class=\"publisher-name\">Edited by Sonali Verma<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportskeeda.com\/us\/nhl\/news-elliotte-friedman-points-biggest-obstacle-cale-makar-s-contract-negotiations-avalanche\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cale Makar&#8217;s next contract with the Colorado Avalanche could depend on how many years he wants to sign for. NHL insider Elliotte Friedman said the Avalanche expect to reach a deal with their star defenseman, but the term could be one of the biggest issues in the talks. Speaking on NHL Tonight, Friedman said Colorado [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":256926,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6806],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-256925","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gossip"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}