Perhaps it has something to do with the fact people weren’t fawning all over him and telling him how special he was from the time he was four. Then there was the time when he was 13, and he not only didn’t make an under-14 AAA team in his town, he wasn’t even asked to try out for one, because he was a 5-foot-2 defenseman. Or it just might have something to do with being raised properly. Because, believe it or not, some guys become elite players in The Best League in the World™ who are not nearly as impressed with themselves as everyone else is.
So, when Cale Makar, still with the flushed cheeks at 25, downplays his accomplishments and generally shuns the attention that comes with them, it’s not a case of false modesty. He actually believes it. With Norris, Calder and Conn Smythe Trophy wins, Makar has already established himself as one of the all-time great defensemen in the game. In the eyes of most people, he’s the best right now among a group that has to be considered a golden age of elite offensive defensemen. And depending upon when you believe players hit their primes, the best may still be yet to come. Last season, Makar hit the 250-point mark in 241 games, six games faster than Bobby Orr did it. Fifty points later, he got to 300 points in 280 games, one more than Orr.
Is the 2024 version of Cale Makar of the Colorado Avalanche a better hockey player than the 1960s and ’70s Bobby Orr of the Boston Bruins? Of course he is, because evolution. (If you have any doubt on that one, try sitting your millennial kid in front of the final three games of the 1987 Canada Cup. Tell them hockey had never been played at a higher level to that point in history. Then hear them say after watching enough to get a feel for it, “Dad, this actually kind of sucks.” And then say to yourself, “As much as it pains me to admit it, the kid’s kind of right.”) But the real question is, even with eras taken into account, could Makar actually challenge Orr for the designation of the greatest defenseman the game has ever seen? Even when Makar was going point-for-point against Orr, the natural instinct was that it’s a preposterous notion.
But is it? Really? Well, according to Makar, it is. “I mean, it’s like comparing a Dodge to a Ferrari,” he said.
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Man, that’s self-deprecating. After all, they didn’t call the movie Dodge v Ferrari, did they? All right, if Makar is going to classify himself as a Dodge, he’s at the very least either a Viper or a 2023 Challenger SRT Demon 170, whatever the heck that is. So, that narrows the gap a little more. As does the fact that he’s the most dynamic defenseman to come along since Orr. Nicklas Lidstrom was quietly and subtly otherworldly, Raymond Bourque was a master, Chris Pronger was a monster, and Brian Leetch was as cerebral as they come. But none of them consistently had the game-breaking component that Makar has in his arsenal. Perhaps the comparisons aren’t so outlandish.
“I never saw Bobby Orr play,” said Makar’s former teammate Zach Parise, whose father J.P. played against Orr, “but Makar does stuff that controls the game, stuff that’s amazing. He’s the best D-man I’ve ever seen.”
Added Avalanche coach Jared Bednar: “I think Cale is deserving of that (comparison). He’s an elite player. His career numbers say that. The eye test says that. It’s a matter of time before everyone sees what he’s capable of. Certainly, there’s some appreciation here of what he’s doing, and it’s growing across North America, what he’s able to do and how he’s able to play.”
And then, of course, there was an observation from none other than Wayne Gretzky during Makar’s run to the Stanley Cup and Conn Smythe in 2022, calling Makar, “the closest player we’ve seen that offensively and defensively can make an impact on the game that much, (since) probably Bobby Orr.”
The thing about Orr’s greatness is that the gap between him and the rest of the league during that era was immense. He was that much better than every other player on the planet. But it was also a time when players took four-minute shifts and used training camp to get into shape. So, is it so outlandish to suggest Makar might have the same kind of impact as Orr in an era when the margin between the elite players and the rest of the league has narrowed considerably?
He’ll probably win the Lady Byng, Norris, Hart, maybe even the Vezina – Zach Parise
Makar joked with his teammates after scoring his 300th point that, “in (Orr’s) next 200 games, he gets like 500 points. It’s unattainable what he did.” Technically, it was 434 points in his next 262 games, but we get the sentiment. There is no way Makar will do that, because that’s the equivalent of a 136-point-season pace over three-plus seasons. Only Nikita Kucherov and Nathan MacKinnon managed to eclipse that total in 2023-24. A 100-point season, though, is not out of the question for Makar. Perhaps even a couple of them. Orr played nine full seasons in the NHL, where goals per game bottomed out at 5.58 and maxed out at 6.85. In the five years Makar has been in the league, the lowest number of goals per game has been 5.87, with the highest at 6.36. So, as far as overall league offensive production, their eras are actually fairly comparable.
Orr won eight straight Norris Trophies, which is something else Makar will never do, but that also had a lot to do again with the margin between Orr and the rest of the league. When Orr won his second Norris Trophy in 1968-69, the other four finalists were Tim Horton, Ted Green, Ted Harris and Al Arbour. When he won his final Norris in ’74-75, the gap had narrowed, with Denis Potvin, Guy Lapointe, Borje Salming and Serge Savard rounding out the finalists. Over the next few years, Makar will get a steady diet of rivals in the form of Quinn Hughes, Roman Josi, Adam Fox and a host of others.
But where Makar can draw comparisons to Orr is in how he plays the game. And how he skates. His edges and mobility are complete game-changers. His skating ability allows him to find the open seams in the offensive zone and hold onto the puck longer without fear of losing it and giving up an odd-man rush the other way. “He doesn’t have a panic point,” said Pronger, who counts Makar and Miro Heiskanen as the best two-way defensemen in the game today. “And much like (former NHL defenseman) Scotty (Niedermayer) and the other great skaters, they don’t have a panic point, because they firmly believe they can catch the guy the other way. They’re not scared. They can catch them, and they’re right, and they know they’re right.”
Makar also gets the puck on net, or near the net, better than anyone since Pronger. His wrist shot from the point is as good as anyone’s since Mike Green, and his ability to find players near the net is reminiscent of Lidstrom. “I just try to shoot it for their stick, whether it’s an inch wide or just on the side of the net,” Makar said. “You’ve got to reward guys for going to the net. A good D-man tries to do that.”
And Makar is doing it while logging ice time that puts him in the top 10 in the NHL. Along with defense partner Devon Toews, he’s also taking the hard assignments against the opponents’ best players. But perhaps most impressive is that he incurred only eight minor penalties all season – two each for interference and tripping and one each for cross-checking, slashing, embellishment and puck over the glass. That means Makar was whistled for exactly six physical fouls in 2023-24. Six. In fact, his 16 penalty minutes last season was the third-fewest among the top 50 players in ice time per game, and only six other players who averaged 20 or more minutes per game registered fewer PIM than Makar did.
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Jaccob Slavin, one of only four defensemen in NHL history to win the Lady Byng Trophy, was one of those guys. He plays a lot of hard minutes as well, but since the award goes to “the player adjudged to have exhibited the best type of sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct combined with a high standard of playing ability,” perhaps there’ll be room for Makar to become the fifth. (Provided he cuts out the embellishment penalties, because that’s not very sportsmanlike.) “It’s not like he’s protected and just playing in the ‘O’ zone,” Parise said. “He’s our first guy on the penalty kill, too. This guy will probably win the Lady Byng, Norris, Hart, maybe even the Vezina?”
Parise is joking, of course. Orr never won a Vezina, either, although you get the impression that if either he or Makar had ever strapped on the pads, they might. Makar will have to settle for perennially being among the top contenders for the Norris Trophy for the next decade or so in a crowded field that keeps getting better. He appears to be up to the task.
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News Summary:
- Better Than Bobby: No Defenseman Can Top Orr, But The Avs' Cale Makar Just Might
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