Cale Makar joins Peter Forsberg (NHL 98) and Joe Sakic (NHL 04) as the third Avalanche player to grace the cover of an EA NHL video game. While being chosen to be on the cover may not be as lustrous as some of his other accolades (Stanley Cup champion, Norris Trophy winner,), the honor still holds some very high regard for Makar, who grew up playing past NHL video games with his brother, family, and friends.
Being one of the top defensemen in the league, it's not surprising to hear that Makar told reporters when he grew up playing NHL, his objective was to score as many goals as possible. "When my brother and I would play growing up, it was more so score as many goals as you can and try and kill each other in the game", he said. The former Norris Trophy winner also went on to state how it was all about offense, mentioning "The only thing defense I would do is poke checks or sliding tackles". While the offensive part makes sense, it's surprising to hear that one of the league's best defensemen paid very little attention to the defensive side when grabbing a controller and loading up NHL.
When asked about who he would try and score the most goals with, he referenced Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane as an iconic duo he'd always try and play with. "Growing up I played with Chicago so much, so I feel like it was always the Kane and Toews duo", he told reporters. If Chicago wasn't an option, Makar said he'd look for "mainly the guys that are fast so you can just wheel around everyone". He also enjoyed playing 3 on 3 NHL Arcade on PlayStation 3, a game similar to NBA Jam that involved bobblehead players, ragdoll physics, and chaotic gameplay. When his hockey career hit junior, he started to dabble in Hockey Ultimate Team or HUT, as well as Franchise/Be A GM Mode. We also asked Makar who he would pair alongside himself on his "dream HUT team" and "dream GM Mode team".
For Be A GM mode, Makar feels pretty confident in starting with the Colorado Avalanche as he wouldn't have to make that many moves. He even threw some love to his defensive partner Devon Toews as he told us "I love playing with Tazer already, so like it makes my job a lot easier". When it comes to HUT and creating a team, Roman Josi, Victor Hedman, and Adam Fox were all names he mentioned, but the list was so long he'd rather just make a super elite back end. "I'd just stack the back 8, we'd try to play 8 D and I'd even put two at forward and just enjoy that", he told reporters.
While his NHL playing days span many years and multiple game modes, Makar isn't so sure that he would be the best Chel gamer on the Avalanche squad. When asked who on the Colorado Avalanche is the best Chel player, he gave a strong argument for star center Nathan MacKinnon. "I know he doesn't play a lot of Chel, he's more like Fortnite right now, but we did a media thing and he played Chel and he was a lot better than I thought he'd be", he said. Makar went on to further his argument for MacKinnon, saying that "Nate's just the best gamer overall I feel like, so I'd stick to him." It sounds like Nathan MacKinnon isn't someone you'd like to face off against in a one versus one scenario on NHL 24, or any video game for that matter.
Fans can get a first hand look at NHL 24 on Wednesday August 16th at 11am EDT when the full reveal of NHL 24 is released. Be sure to check The Hockey News - Gaming for the latest and up to date information on NHL 24.