Cale Makar
Makar is Colorado's top-pair, first-power-play defenseman, and the only open question for the rest of this season is the day-to-day wire note, whose cause and timeline I could not find.
Role
The Morning Puck's expected lines for October 31 vs. Calgary pair Makar with Devon Toews on the top pair. Brett Kulak with Sam Malinski, and Brent Burns with Josh Manson, follow. ESPN's line page, indexed about 12 days ago, also has Toews-Makar first, with Makar on the first power-play unit alongside T.J. Hughes, and on the first penalty-kill pairing with Toews. A gamedaytweets entry from beat writers (Aarif and Evan Rawal) also lists Makar on PP1 with MacKinnon, Kadri, Hughes and Necas, but it is undated, so treat it as weaker. Daily Faceoff's page fetched with no player names and a last-updated stamp of April 20, so I could not read a current Daily Faceoff line from it. I found no ice-time figure for this season. If Makar sits, the likeliest beneficiaries are Toews and Malinski, but I found no reporting that confirms who would move up.
He is the franchise defenseman on a new $163.2 million extension. He sits on the top pair and PP1 with MacKinnon and Necas. Officepools analysis from early October (two goals in one game) said he should keep piling up points. Bednar has downplayed his health problems before, and each was described as short-term.
Makar has a recent injury record. He played through an upper-body injury late in the playoffs and missed the first two games of the Western Conference Final. He then had a separate lower-body issue before training camp, which Bednar said was unrelated. The current day-to-day note adds to that pattern, and Colorado has a history of resting him cautiously.
Where analysts split
No analyst disagreement about his role turned up. The open question is health: whether the current day-to-day note means a brief absence or a longer one. I found no practice report or coach update dated after the wire note, so that is unresolved.
Research confidence: thin. Outlooks are grounded in web search over current reporting and refreshed through the season.
Others at D
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