Prospect Info: Cale Makar - D [4th Overall] Part III: Not A Prospect Edition

[Northern Avs Fan]

Burgundy Review EXCLUSIVE: Chris MacFarland Speaks (Part 2)

Some interesting tidbits about Makar in here from Chris MacFarland. Speak of a few more prospects as well.

Good stuff.

Interesting to hear him say that Jost is, “needing a new deal.”

I wonder if that’s a hint that the organization is considering keeping him around, or maybe he was just lumped in with the other RFA’s mentioned.

Also interesting that he went out of his way to lump Ranta into the conversation of top prospects with Byram, Timmins, and Newhook.

 

[Richard88]

Burgundy Review EXCLUSIVE: Chris MacFarland Speaks (Part 2)

Some interesting tidbits about Makar in here from Chris MacFarland. Speak of a few more prospects as well.

Thanks for sharing that, really insightful.

Some interesting quotes:

On planning for the offseason: [We had] a lot of Zoom meetings with our scouts, both pro and amateur, and trying to get ahead of it a little bit, not knowing what the landscape was going to be or how some of the off-season dates may or may not have changed. I took out the next three years for everybody’s [salary] cap–every team’s cap–and projected that, and fine-tuned that, so we could look at opportunities that might make sense for the Avs.”

Nothing really surprising about that but it does remind me of the Burakovsky situation. I'm sure the team will be monitoring some teams that they can take advantage of, like Tampa for instance.

He also basically said what we all knew as being the reason for Kaut not being included, which is basically to do with his ELC slide:

On why Martin Kaut was not one of the players selected: “He’s a guy that is a top prospect for us. There’s a CBA rule that, if a player plays a tenth game, then his contract year would count. When looking at that, and looking at a flat cap, and looking at where our salary structure is going, it was just too important for us to not lose the [contract] year for one more game on that when we’re going to want to have him on this contract for the next three years. He had a very solid year. He’s an important player for us going forward, so that was probably the single biggest one that we hemmed and hawed on.”

In the quote below he goes out of his way to mention Ranta which was interesting.

On Bowen Byram and Alex Newhook: “We are really bullish on both of them, along with some of the other guys, like Conor Timmins and Sampo Ranta. I think they’re going to be really important, not only because they’re good hockey players, but also because of where our team is headed: flat cap. We’re going to need entry-level talent to play significant roles for us, you know. The flat [cap] will be a challenge. Guys are going to take jumps in their salaries now, whether it’s a lower price point or an entry-level deal, to getting paid more money. That’s great: they’ve earned it, and that’s the way it’s supposed to go when you have a good team: it becomes more expensive. We’re going to need those guys to come in and play roles for us, and I think what’s exciting about those two in particular is that they have a chance to play as [a] top four defenseman or a top six forward, and those are the pricier points on your roster.

“Byram is here now. He’s skating with our guys; he’s getting a taste of it. He’s going to see if he can earn his way onto the roster to go to Edmonton and see what the playoffs are all about. But we see a future puck-moving guy there, with some offensive skill-set. He’s put on some weight since what he was last fall, so we got high hopes for him. What [Alex Newhook] did in college as a true freshman, that’s tough to do. He was an offensive force, an impact player as a first year college guy. That’s impressive. With Alex, I think we’ve got a burgeoning top six forward.”

Some words on how how they want to make it tough for players to crack the roster:

On prospect development with the Colorado Eagles: “You got to earn to learn. Nothing’s going to be given. If you’re going to make the Avalanche hockey team, you’re going to knock somebody out of the box. It’s not going to be easy, but as Joe has said, and told us and our scouts, it’s not supposed to be easy. Winning’s hard, and our guys in the American [Hockey] League are learning that. They’ve got to earn to learn down there, and when they get a chance to come up here, they’ve got to kick the door in and show that they’re ready for the National Hockey League, and trust us that we’ll know when they are ready, and that’s our job to make room for them.”

He talks about the RFA's that need new contracts including Graves and Jost, suggesting that they're in the teams plans going forward. There's no mention of Zadorov though.

On approaching contract negotiations with a flat salary cap: “We’re going to have some tough decisions to make over the next few years, and the cap, unfortunately, is not rising at a time where our team is entering a phase of its development where it’s just going to be getting more expensive. That’s going to make for a tough decision here and there. We’re going to have some unique opportunities, I think, to explore around the League, but I think we’re also going to have to look at a year from now. Let’s face it, Cale is going to be the biggest increase of our cap pie as we talk about it, the biggest cap slice, from his current contract to likely where he’s going. That’s one that we’ll have to figure out, and then Gabe’s [Landeskog] contract has one more year. Grubauer. Thankfully, we locked up [Sam] Girard last year in the summer, but guys like Ryan Graves and Val Nichushkin, Tyson Jost, they’ll need new deals. Graves and Nichushkin in particular, have [salary arbitration], so there’s that sort of dynamic, too. It’ll be a challenge, but we’ll examine every decision through the multiple lenses that we run them through, and filters, and we’re confident we’ll be able to ice a very competitive team for the years to come.”