Will Cale Makar receive an offer sheet?

Cale Makar wants to stay with the Colorado Avalanche, but the longer the Avs take to sign Makar to a new deal, the closer it brings him to an offer sheet.

Pierre LeBrun is reporting on TSN’s Insider Trading there are some who believe that if Makar’s deal isn’t done right away on July 28 there may be teams that come calling. Colorado internally is guarding against this.

One reason why Makar has not been signed yet is the Avalanche are juggling a lot of different things. Gabriel Landeskog’s contract is up. We know that Brandon Saad’s contract is up — he may or may not be able to stay. Vezina Trophy finalist Philipp Grubauer is a pending UFA, and, of course, a year from now Colorado needs to be under the cap to sign Nathan MacKinnon to a monster extension.

Like many other good teams in the league, the Avalanche have some tough decisions to make. Will they be able to re-sign Landeskog? With MacKinnion likely looking at a $11 million/year new contract, Makar will be seeking around $9 million / year, Mikko Rantanen making $9.2 million, can they even afford Grubauer?

Either way, if the AVs do not get Makar signed by July 28th, a team with a lot of cap space could offer sheet Makar to a $10 million or $11 million/year contract which could force the Avs into spending money they really can’t afford to do.