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Avalanche’s Cale Makar wins Conn Smythe to cap historic season: ‘We’re watching greatness’

TAMPA, Fla. — Cale Makar doesn’t love attention, so it was fitting that after being named the Stanley Cup playoffs’ most valuable player Sunday, he skated the Conn Smythe Trophy to the Colorado Avalanche bench without so much as raising it above his head.

It’s also fitting that he won it.

Makar put together a postseason for the ages, establishing himself as not only one of the league’s best young players but one of its best players in general. Makar didn’t have a banner day in the clinching Game 6, committing a penalty and making a costly turnover, but he still finished the series with three goals and seven points, cracking the top 10 for most points in a Stanley Cup Final by a defenseman.

Makar gave teammates Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen bear hugs after putting the trophy down. Together, they’d accomplished their goal.

Just after Makar took his lap with the Stanley Cup, Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog was asked by ESPN’s Emily Kaplan what other teams could learn from the Avalanche championship run. “Find a Cale Makar somewhere,” he replied.

The 23-year-old Makar finished the postseason with a team-leading 29 points in 20 games — a 119-point pace over 82 games — and, in the middle of it all, accepted the Norris Trophy at a June 21 event in Tampa, beating out fellow finalists Roman Josi and Victor Hedman.

“I love playing against him. I love watching him play. He’s so dynamic.” Josi said earlier these playoffs. “There are so many great defensemen coming up. It helps us and pushes us.”

Josi and the Predators had the task of trying to slow down Makar in the first round. And like most teams this season, they failed. The defenseman logged 10 points in four games against Nashville and scored an overtime winner in Game 2.

The overtime winner was one of the Makar plays, both subtle and flashy, that defined his postseason.

It started in Game 1 of the Nashville series when he sidestepped Tanner Jeannot, rocketed to the net and roofed a puck past David Rittich.

Then there was his ability to both defend Connor McDavid one-on-one and, at least once seemingly every game, cut through the neutral zone like butter. His short-handed goal in Game 2 against the Lightning. His 34 minutes of ice time in Game 4. And finally, receiving the Conn Smythe Trophy, on which his name will soon be engraved.

“We’re lucky because we’re watching greatness,” Colorado teammate Erik Johnson said. “And we don’t see that a lot.”

Makar’s Avalanche career has been memorable since his first period of play. Hours after he and his UMass teammates lost in the 2019 NCAA championship game, he signed with Colorado. The next morning, he was on a flight to Denver, and a day later he suited up for a playoff game against his hometown Calgary Flames. In the first period, he joined the offensive rush, took a pass from MacKinnon and scored from the offensive-zone faceoff circle. Captain Landeskog threw his arms around his new teammate, and the defenseman’s parents, Gary and Laura, smiled disbelievingly from their seats.

Makar’s arrival came at the right time for both him and Colorado, but the Avalanche actually wanted him to turn pro a year earlier. He believed he needed more time in college, so he stayed at UMass for his sophomore year, working to put on muscle and touch up elements of his game.

“They felt that I could make that step,” Makar said. “For me, it was just there were still aspects of my game that I felt needed some work, and I felt like that second year was so pivotal for me in terms of my defensive aspect of the game and just growing, not only as a player but as a person and just becoming ready or even overripe for this level.”

And he was. He showed from that first game against Calgary that he was a special player. Fans watching saw it, and so did his teammates. Former Colorado blueliner Tyson Barrie, an offensive-minded defenseman and beloved member of the dressing room, said he knew his future with the Avalanche was in question as soon as he saw Makar play.

“I knew I was in trouble the first time I got on the ice with him,” Barrie laughed. “He was super impressive right from the get-go. And he was a great kid. I’m not surprised to see how dominant he’s been.”

As Barrie predicted, Makar’s brilliance led to Joe Sakic and the Avalanche front office making a move. In June 2019, before Makar had even played a regular-season NHL game, they shipped Barrie to Toronto in a deal for Nazem Kadri, another Avalanche postseason hero. And when Barrie, now with the Oilers, faced Makar in the Western Conference final, he watched his former teammate log nine points over four games, all while logging more than 28 minutes of ice time a night.

Makar has only ascended since his debut. At age 23, he has now has lifted the Stanley Cup, won a Norris Trophy, won a Calder Trophy and won a Conn Smythe Trophy. Only two other players have done that: Hall of Famers Bobby Orr and Brian Leetch.

The Conn Smythe capped as close to a perfect season as a defenseman can have. Makar scored 28 regular-season goals, including a highlight-reel, ankle-breaking overtime winner in Chicago and a coast-to-coast tally in Philadelphia.

The rosy-cheeked, youthful-looking Makar mostly shies away from praise, deflecting it toward his teammates. He’s been that way since long before he arrived in Denver. Just ask his Alberta junior league teammates in Brooks or his classmates at UMass.

“Very quiet, humble kid, but just a salt of the earth person,” Jake Gaudet, one of Makar’s college teammates, said in an interview earlier this season. “It’s funny watching him in the NHL. When he scores, he almost doesn’t like the extra attention it brings.”

But for someone who looks bashful and at times uncomfortable when showered with honors, Makar’s play sure brings him a lot of it. And now his resume includes a Stanley Cup championship — the prize he desperately wanted — and the Conn Smythe Trophy, the signifier of his role in making it happen.

(Top photo: Geoff Burke / USA Today)



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