The NEW Most Expensive Man In NHL Hockey

Well, it is official. Kale McCarr is now the new, new, new highest paid man in the NHL. We're going to have to make about 16 more of these videos before the season even starts at this rate with how guys are being paid, but listen to this contract. It is eight years, $20.4 million a year, making him an av until 2035. This contract is already historic as he is the first $20 million player in the NHL. This signing is huge for multiple reasons. So let's break it down. What it means for McCarr and the avalanche, how he dominates the game and why it dictates this much money and what it means for the rest of the league. And more importantly, the other D-men in his caliber and Quinn Hughes and Zach Wierenski. Now, of course, this deal doesn't kick in until next season. So according to AAV, he won't be the highest paid player this season. That honor still belongs to the Carilioner himself and Karel Kaprizov. So he's still the big boy going into next season. But there's been a couple of big signings this offseason that has indicated and has set the bar as to what these superstars will be paid moving forward. That was all kicked off by Leo Carlson signing an $18 million offer sheet at the beginning of the year with the Flyers. Of course, Anaheim matched that offer, and now that has set the bar for these superstars with contracts on the horizon. Macklin Celebrini followed that up shortly after after signing an $18.8 million deal over five years, which shortly made him the highest paid player annually, or at least was going to be for about a month. And then Kael Makar signed this whopper of a deal. Something tells me, though, that this won't be the last time there's a new most expensive man in hockey. There is a lot of superstars needing a new contract in the next couple of years that will probably surpass this AAV that Kael Makar has. So what is that? There's already a bit of a concern in the past playoff run when both McKinnon and Makar got injured in the conference final. And they got swept. They have incredible depth, but it didn't step up the way they anticipated, and it ultimately led to them falling short. That being said, they had no choice but to pay Kael Makar his money. He's worth every single penny of it, depending on who you prefer. He is easily the best or second best defenseman in the world on any given night. And so if you want a Stanley Cup, you want to make your fan base happy and you want to compete for as long as possible. You have to give Kael Makar whatever he wants. It was also crucial that they get this done before September 15th because that is when the current CBA deal ends. And that is important because the max number of years that you can sign on a deal shifts from eight to seven with the new agreement. So Colorado locks up their franchise defenseman for basically his entire prime. And really, what is there to be said other than this for Kael Makar? Six straight Norris nominations, two Norris trophy wins, a Calder trophy, Conn Smythe trophy, Stanley Cup champ, fastest D-man to 200 points in NHL history and fastest D-man to 100 playoff points in NHL history. He's the first player in hockey history to win the Hobie Baker, Calder, Norris and Conn Smythe in their career. That is the resume of pure domination. Now, there are better players or should I say more productive players than Quinn Hughes and Kael Makar, but as a number one defenseman who is generally tasked with playing anywhere upwards of 27 minutes a night, the position itself, other than goaltender, plays a massive part in controlling the game. And that's why you could argue that Kael Makar is probably the most valuable player to the avalanche. There may not be a better system player fit than the one Colorado has with Kael Makar. It's a very uptempo, aggressive style on both sides of the puck that is designed heavily around the strengths of Makar and McKinnon. We highlight this quite a bit on the channel, but the Avs man on man defensive system is a scheme that fits really nicely with Makar skating. He may be the most dynamic skater in the NHL in terms of lateral mobility and overall edge work. And the way he's able to leverage his edges to stay with checks and snuff out the opponent's possession is very impressive. According to Advanced Stats, there are two things that Kael Makar does better than every other defenseman in the world. That is retrievals and carry exits where he ranks in the 100th percentile in both categories. And really, they go hand in hand. They're both pretty self-explanatory as retrievals essentially tracks how well a defenseman can go back and successfully recover a loose puck in their own end without creating a turnover. And it's why L.A. this past postseason had a very difficult time generating sustained offense against Colorado when they got swept. And you can look at just one aspect of this with how Makar handled the hard rims that L.A. tried to put up against them on their forecheck. I'll flash it up on the screen here. But Florida really mastered the weak side rim play to initiate their forecheck with their back to back cups. And so teams around the league like L.A. started to pull this out more, especially come playoff time. Now, the whole point is to force a defender who is on their strong side. So a righty playing the right side have to pick up a rim puck on their backhand and make a play under pressure. It is very difficult to make that play. But the best players in the world execute the routine plays flawlessly. It starts with the awareness and anticipation to know that a rim play is coming in the first place. Before getting to the puck, he takes a quick scan to see where his far side winger will be. And knowing that there's an option there, he braces to handle this rim puck perfectly by absorbing it to his back foot and then slings it up the wall to his winger for another successful exit. Between the subtlety plays like that and the slippery evasiveness against four checkers one on one, Colorado spends very little time on their heels in the D zone. But Makar is on the ice. It's a big reason why they were ranked second in the NHL this season in terms of time spent in the D zone. Of course, though, you have the offensive side of his game, which is an in your face tempo that can expose you at the slightest miscalculation. He becomes one of the most, if not the most lethal shooter from long and mid range because of how he attacks downhill upon his receptions. Again, based on the premise of his lethal edge work and his ability to seamlessly cut from his Mohawk into forward momentum, he is always skating into his first touch down towards the goal. Here's an example against Minnesota before the puck even reaches Makar. He's already taken a tiny arc with his route while backpedaling so that upon reception he can explode forward. And as soon as he touches this puck, look at that left leg explode downhill and instantly claim that space. And this right here is the other issue he presents for teams because of how quickly this puck reached Makar and how sudden he's attacking downhill. The weak side winger has left far too much space for Makar to cook. It's officially panic at the disco time for this poor fellow who is Matt Boldy, by the way, a great player. And at this point, he's just trying to hold the lane and block the shot. Instead, he gives it the old pump and dump, fakes the shot and then shoots through the triangle. And it's another cookie for him to say, show me the money. Now, what if you try and play man on man like the Kings do here? Again, even if he has very limited space to work with because he's such a phenomenal skater, he creates these little arcs for him to get momentum to attack downhill. He's basically right up against the here on the blue line with an attacker coming at him. But he uses his inside edges to create that inside arc momentum. And it's not just his feet either. It's his entire body language. His head is up. He's scanning the ice as well as the attacker to see what he does. In the split second, he reads a commitment in the toe caps of the opponent. He is attacking against the green and against the heels of the defender. And at this point, this guy is cooked. An explosive first few steps. See you later. And then here's the chef kiss from Makar, the awareness to attack through the hands and get his body between him and the puck makes it impossible for the defender to get stick on puck here. And now Buddy has signed up for a piggyback ride and a front row seat to watching Kale Makar bury on him like a sick puppy. Of course, the most frustrating part of all of it is that he doesn't even need to beat you one on one to score. He's one of the best perimeter shooters in the game because of how well he shoots through traffic. But the way teams buy in and block shots in the modern NHL, this skill has become super valuable and it goes just beyond reading the initial defender in front of him. His mobility on the blue line means that he can walk the line laterally very effectively. And so as he does that, he's monitoring and controlling two things. First of the traffic in front of the goalie and then the goalie stance in response to that traffic because goalies are mutant monsters. Now, when there's multiple layers of traffic in front of them, they go into this relaxed stance to try and see over and around the traffic. Of course, when they sense a shot threat, they kick into that ready stance. But because Makar walks the line so well and he has his eyes on the target at all times, he knows the most opportune time to release that puck to catch the goalie in between these positions. It may seem lucky at first, but you don't score with that level of consistency through luck alone. And that is just a brief summarization of how Makar impacts the game. This alone is a 20 minute video, but there are also two other defensemen who are just as good and impactful in Zakarensky and Quinn Hughes. And so on the business side of it, this contract impacts both of those fellas. But the whole Hughes and Makar situation, it very much seemed like both parties were waiting for the other to sign so that they can finalize their own agreement. But the latest report on Quinn Hughes is that they haven't talked about any extension lately with the Wild. Now, if you remember, Minnesota gave up an arm and a leg to get the Quinnesota train running in Minneapolis. They gave up a whole bunch of futures. They finally won a playoff round, but then they got eliminated by the very man who signed this deal in Kael Makar in the second round. The Wild have still not addressed their biggest issue, by the way, which is finding a true number one center, which, in my opinion, is the biggest thing holding them back from being a true cup contender. But maybe this deal changes things for Quinn, and perhaps he signs a short term deal that aligns with his brother Jack's contract in New Jersey expiring in four years. We may know pretty soon, or it could be something that hangs over Minnesota for the entire season, which I'm sure wouldn't be preferred for the Wild management group. Of course, this also impacts Zach Borenski and Columbus. Columbus certainly has sewered themselves this offseason as well. I was looking there for a hot second that Zach Borenski was going to get traded only for him and the organization to do the biggest backpedal of all time and say that they're both committed to making this work and win in Columbus. Now, the Blue Jackets are likely going to throw whatever number they need to to possibly keep Zach Borenski. But if he doesn't want to stay, this number that McCarr signed for will be the benchmark for if he gets traded to a new team with an extension or if he decides to test free agency. Either way, the Kael McCarr deal has set the standard for the very best NHL defenseman in the world. And now all deals moving forward will use this as a benchmark. So what do you guys think about Kael McCarr's new deal? Who do you think signs the next big ticket? And how much do you think it's worth? Let me know in the comments down below. I'm Anthony. I do all the breakdowns for the channel. 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