Colorado Avalanche superstar defenseman Cale Makar's effort and integrity even had his professor say he felt like a better person after every encounter with him.
Colorado Avalanche superstar defenseman Cale Makar was again nominated for the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s best defenseman this past season.
And in this cover story from The Hockey News’ Jan. 27, 2020, edition (Volume 73, Issue 2), Ken Campbell penned a deep-dive feature into Makar’s ascent to the top of the NHL’s competitive pyramid.
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Makar was just 21 years old when the story was published, but he had already established himself as an NHL threat in his rookie campaign.
But well before then, he’d made a huge impression on everyone he encountered, including University of Massachusetts psychology professor Richard Halgin.
“I’ve taught 20,000 students at this university,” Halgin said. “I’ve mentored 30 PhD students. Cale is so unique. I don’t think I’ve ever run into somebody like him. He has such integrity, such morality, such a work ethic. I left every hour I spent with him feeling like I was a better person.”
Here's the full story.
CALE, COOL & COLLECTED
Vol. 73, No. 2, Jan. 27, 2020
By Ken Campbell
At one point during his team’s run to the Frozen Four title game last season, UMass-Amherst coach Greg Carvel managed to find time to go to his son’s hockey practice. After the session, six-year-old Drew Carvel ran into the dressing room, tore off his helmet, looked in the mirror and shrieked with delight.
“I didn’t know what he was doing,” coach Carvel said. “He looks in the mirror and he says, ‘Look, Dad, my cheeks are red, just like Cale’s!’”
That’s the kind of impact Cale Makar has on people. Some of it has to do with his otherworldly hockey talent, but a lot of it has to do with integrity, living life the right way and treating people with respect.
First, the hockey, though. Makar looks like he’s 12, plays like he’s 30. The Colorado Avalanche rookie defenseman perpetually looks as though he’s just come in from playing for hours on a backyard rink. (Perhaps the rink his father, Gary, built every year for him and his younger brother, Taylor, at their home in the Varsity neighborhood in northwest Calgary, an area populated by single-detached homes with wide lots.)
But Cale plays with a poise and maturity that is uncanny. Barring a serious injury, the Calder Trophy is almost certainly his, with fellow freshman rearguard Quinn Hughes of Vancouver a close second.
Of the 65 times the Norris Trophy has been awarded, only once in history has a player ever been a finalist for both the Calder and the Norris. Care to guess who it was? None other than Bobby Orr, who was named top rookie in 1966-67 and finished third in Norris Trophy voting behind Harry Howell and Pierre Pilote.
Makar stands an excellent chance of becoming the second. Despite averaging more than 20 minutes a game in ice time, Makar hadn’t seen the inside of an NHL penalty box until Game No. 31. That sense of clean play should have him in the running for the Lady Byng Trophy as well.
“He’s had some games this year where he’s been the best player on the ice by a mile,” said Avalanche superstar Nathan MacKinnon. “It’s amazing to have someone back there who is so dominant. I think he’s the most dynamic defenseman in the league.”
The 24-year-old MacKinnon and 21-year-old Makar have found a unique chemistry that makes them on-ice soulmates and an explosive duo. Makar roams the offensive zone with the puck on his stick until he finds MacKinnon in a scoring area. MacKinnon, the second-fastest player in the league after Connor McDavid, has found a near equal in Makar, making them a nightmare for opponents when Makar joins MacKinnon on the rush.
“He’s just such a smart player,” MacKinnon said. “He finds me in really good areas, and he makes my life easy.”
Avs television analyst Peter McNab, who has seen his share of superstars during his life in hockey, puts it much more succinctly: “Greatness feeds off greatness.”
Ah, yes, greatness, that ubiquitous yet generally elusive state of being that every NHL player works his career to achieve. Much of the hockey world is united in the opinion that greatness awaits Makar, if it hasn’t found him already. To be sure, Makar has already done some great things on the ice, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at his body language.
When Makar scores, as he did nine times through the first half of the season, he’s more likely to raise his eyebrows than his stick, and he might not even do that. More on this later, but the kid absolutely abhors bringing attention to himself.
At the Mullins Center Arena, where his Hobey Baker banner was raised in December to coincide with an Avalanche trip to Boston, there is now a head-to-toe photograph of Makar with the Hobey Baker Award on the wall between the practice rink and the main rink. Makar cringed a little with embarrassment when he saw it and begged those who wanted pictures with him not to snap any within view of the billboard-sized likeness of him.
It’s not so much Makar acting as though he’s been there before. It’s more a case of the fact he lives inside that greatness, so he expects great things to happen. It’s also a function of not being terribly impressed with himself.
“The guys in the room give me s--- about that sometimes, but it’s not that big a deal,” said Makar of his muted goal celebrations. “I’ve always been a calm individual. I’ve always tried to be on an even keel. That’s all I’ve got honestly.”
You want calm and poised? Just as he waits in the offensive zone for the right moment to shoot or dish the puck, Makar sees no need in hurrying anything.
After his freshman year at UMass, a year after Colorado drafted him fourth overall, the Avalanche wanted Makar to turn pro. But he turned them down, citing a need for more maturity and development. Avalanche GM Joe Sakic understood, since he did the same thing when the Quebec Nordiques tried to sign him as an 18-year-old, but he instead went back to the WHL’s Swift Current Broncos where he scored 184 points in 74 regular-season and playoff games.
A week after watching Makar lead Canada to gold at the 2018 World Junior Championship and secure a spot on the all-star team, Hockey Canada offered him a spot on the Olympic team, but he turned it down, reasoning he didn’t want to abandon his schooling and college team to be a seventh defenseman at the tournament.
When Makar was in bantam, he not only failed to make the local AAA team, he wasn’t even invited to try out because he was deemed too small.
He was also denied the chance to participate in the Alberta Cup, an eight-team tournament that identifies the elite 14-year-old players in the province. Of the 160 players who played in that event, only a handful have played games in the NHL, and none have established themselves as regulars.
Rather than be crushed, Makar put it into perspective. But he did so with a bit of a chip on his shoulder. He was named the most outstanding defenseman in Calgary bantam AA and led his team to a league championship.
“It was like, ‘What are you going to do about it?’” said Gary Makar. “‘Well, I’m going to rip up the league as the youngest guy in bantam AA playing against almost all older guys.’ People think, ‘Oh my goodness, your career is ruined at 14 if you don’t make the Alberta Cup.’ When you point at the coach, three fingers come back at you. You blame a linemate, you blame anything and when you realize how silly that is, you say, ‘I’m the guy who has to be responsible.’ There are so many people who blame the external circumstances and don’t want their kid to feel bad or not work at it. It starts upstairs, man.”
Makar was only 5-foot-2 at the time. By the time he was picked in the eighth round of the 2013 WHL draft by the Medicine Hat Tigers, he was about 5-foot-4. Makar moved up to midget AAA in 2013-14 and was scouted by the Brooks Bandits, where he went on to win two Alberta Jr. A League titles, including two trips to the national Royal Bank Cup, a tournament where he was named MVP both years despite the fact his team didn’t win the final.
“I have a picture of him when we brought him up as a 16-year-old, and it’s the funniest picture I’ve ever seen,” said Ryan Papaiannou, who coached Makar with the Bandits. “He legitimately looks not a day over 10, and he’s in the lineup against guys 20 and 21. He looks like a tiny kid.”
From there, Makar went to UMass where he was a big part of reviving the program, leading it to within one game of a national title while being named the most outstanding player in U.S. college. As he grew in stature (he’s now 5-foot-11, 190 pounds), he also experienced enormous expansion in character.
“I’ve taught 20,000 students at this university,” said UMass psychology professor Richard Halgin, who worked closely with Makar. “I’ve mentored 30 PhD students. Cale is so unique. I don’t think I’ve ever run into somebody like him. He has such integrity, such morality, such a work ethic. I left every hour I spent with him feeling like I was a better person.”
Of the first 58 shots Makar took this season, four were slapshots. Four. For a defenseman who produces offense from the blueline. Of the nine goals and 34 points he scored from last season’s NHL playoffs through the first 29 games of his rookie season, not a single point came off a slapshot. Not one.
“When you have a wrist shot like he has,” said Sakic, who might’ve had the greatest wrist shot in NHL history, “why would you take slapshots?”
But it’s more than that. Despite the fact he’s only 21, Makar has already come to the realization that the wrist/snap shot he has in his arsenal is far more effective than any slapshot would ever be. One-time slapshots are for players who have to get the puck off their sticks as soon as they can. But Makar is content to wait, put his head up and look for the best pass or shot. If it’s the latter, there’s a good chance it’s going high to the glove side (if the goalie catches with his left hand).
“I obviously aim for the spot that looks like it’s open at the time,” Makar said. “There is no specific spot I’m looking for all the time.”
Makar carries the puck and cradles it almost exclusively at the top of his stick blade, which makes it a little difficult to call his shot a wrist shot, but whatever it is, it’s definitely the best in the NHL since Mike Green in his heyday with Washington. When it comes to wrist shots from the blueline, the best of all-time was probably Denis Potvin, and Makar is looking very much like the Hall of Famer.
“I think it’s more of a snap shot,” Makar said. “I don’t know if the wrist shot even really exists anymore. A lot of guys pull it in and shoot it now, and I consider that a snap. Wristers are kind of just when you’re throwing it from back. I don’t about know the mechanics of it. I just kind of do it. I’ll probably go out tonight and only be taking slapshots.” (Makar made that statement after a morning skate before a game in early December. He lied. He took not one of his four slapshots on the season that night.)
Before missing five games in December after taking a hard but clean hit from Boston’s Brad Marchand, Makar was on pace to break the NHL point record by a rookie D-man, established by Larry Murphy with 76 points for Los Angeles almost 40 years ago. (Makar was also on pace for 23 goals, which would tie Brian Leetch for the most by a rookie defenseman, a mark set more than 30 years ago.)
Makar’s defensive game is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s coming. For a guy who handles the puck as much as he does, only 24 giveaways in 32 games was another remarkable stat. If you’re looking for comparables, the most apt one might be Scott Niedermayer, Winner of Everything on Earth™ and member of the Hall of Fame.
Like Niedermayer, Makar has done his fair share of winning. Two Alberta Jr. A League titles, gold medals in the WJC and the World Jr. A Challenge and a Hockey East title, the first ever for UMass, are already on his resume.
“When you watch, they’re the same, up into the play, the way he appears,” McNab said. “Cale has one thing Scotty didn’t have. He’s got a wicked shot. That wasn’t a big part of (Niedermayer’s) game.”
Two years ago, Halgin was teaching his first-year psychology class at UMass. Among the 350 students in the class, it didn’t take long for him to recognize Cale Makar, who always sat in the second row, took meticulous notes, never missed a class and did well on exams.
In his sophomore year, with a letter on his sweater and an increased role on a very good team, Makar asked Halgin if he could do an independent reading course worth three academic credits in the first semester, which went so well he asked to do another one in the second semester.
His last report, based on a book called Good Leaders Ask Great Questions by John C. Maxwell, was a little late. The dog did not eat his homework, but he did explain in an email that in the previous four days he had won the Hobey Baker, played in the Frozen Four final, signed an NHL contract with the Avalanche and appeared in Game 3 of the Avs’ first-round playoff series against Calgary and scored a goal. He asked for an extension.
“And he got it in,” Halgin said. “I told him at the beginning, ‘Cale, just because you’re a celebrity here, I’m not going to risk my reputation by giving you any easy way out or shortcuts,’ and he said, ‘Absolutely.’”
Halgin is not just any garden-variety professor. He’s one of the cool ones, without the turtleneck and the problems with the crusty, old dean. Halgin also serves as a consulting psychologist for the UMass hockey team, and he’s available for everything from girlfriend problems to depression and anxiety.
“I’ve had guys call me years later with marital problems,” Halgin said.
Makar refers to Halgin simply as ‘Doc’ and was hosted by Halgin and his wife for a farewell dinner before he left for Colorado. This past summer, around the fire at the family lake house, Makar raved to his cousins about ‘Doc.’
In the first semester, Makar did his independent study on leadership. In the second semester, he focused on self-understanding. He was to read six books and do a critical analysis of each one, meet with Halgin once a week in his office and submit a term paper, minimum 12 pages with citations in line with standards set by the American Psychological Association.
Makar showed up every week, including once when he walked a mile through a snowstorm from his dorm to Halgin’s office for an 8 a.m. meeting. (Although the accumulation was only four or five inches, according to Halgin, which qualifies as a minor dusting when you hail from Calgary.)
“I said, ‘Who drove you?’” Halgin said. “‘I walked. Did you think I wasn’t going to come?’ I think he had sneakers on, too. It didn’t even faze him.”
Halgin figures that with his training as a clinical psychologist and the frequency with which he met Makar, had there been any chink in the armor he would have seen it. There was nothing of the sort. Even now, he and Makar have long telephone conversations, and once Makar gets established in his hockey career, he plans to continue his studies at UMass and work toward his degree in sports management.
There will be more independent studies with ‘Doc,’ done during the summers and by Skype.
“I talked to him on the phone for an hour a couple of weeks ago, and I said, ‘Cale, what do you like best about the NHL?’” Halgin said. “And he says, ‘Doc, on the plane I get two seats to myself.’ That was it. Two seats to himself. Then he says, ‘Doc, my apartment in Denver is a block from the Whole Foods supermarket.’ He likes the simplest stuff. And he’s sincere.”
When Gary Makar and Laura MacGregor were trying to decide on a name for their first child, Gary was working for the Flames’ advertising and PR agency and got to meet Flames defenseman Cale Hulse. He was impressed by the politeness of the young man – who himself was named after NASCAR legend Cale Yarborough – and ran the name by his wife, who approved. Even though Gary was a big Kurt Russell fan and thought Kurt Russell Makar would be a solid handle, they settled on Cale.
At the 2018 world juniors in Buffalo, Gary saw a fan with a sign that said, “Dude, where’s Makar?” Turns out the guy had seen Makar play in the Royal Bank Cup and loved his game. Cale had never heard of the 2000 movie Dude, Where’s My Car? starring Ashton Kutcher and Seann William Scott, and was perplexed by the constant references to it, so Gary had him watch the film after the tournament.
“I’ve seen T-shirts with it,” Gary said. “He watched it and he said, ‘Yeah, that’s a horrible movie.’”
Younger brother Taylor is following in Cale’s skate tracks, despite the fact he’s 6-foot-3 and a center. He’s playing this season with Brooks and has already committed to the UMass program. He went undrafted in the NHL this past summer and may wait an extra year before he goes to university because, as Carvel said,
“That’s what the Makars do. They take their time and do it the right way.” For his part, Gary thinks Taylor will develop in good time and has a chance to play pro hockey, perhaps joining his brother in the NHL. One thing Gary Makar has done well is get the pressure out of his kids’ heads. “There are five useless words in the world: ‘What do other people think?’” Gary said. “Who cares? How do you feel? Do you have your confidence? Because if you’re meant to be there, you’re the one who’s going to do it.”
It’s pretty clear Cale Makar was meant to play in the NHL. And the best thing about all of it is he’s just getting started.
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