The Colorado Avalanche have locked up one of the best players in hockey with a historic contract.

Cale Makar has officially signed an eight-year, $163.2 million contract extension with Colorado. The deal carries a staggering $20.4 million average annual value, making Makar the highest-paid player in NHL history on an annual basis.

The extension begins in the 2027-28 season and will keep Makar under contract with the Avalanche through the 2034-35 campaign.

There is no question that Makar deserves a massive contract.

Still just 27 years old, he has already established himself as one of the best defensemen in the NHL. He has won multiple Norris Trophies, helped lead Colorado to a Stanley Cup in 2022 and become one of the league’s most dynamic players.

Makar’s skating, puck movement and offensive ability make him unique. He can create scoring opportunities from the blue line, lead the rush himself and play huge minutes against some of the league’s best players.

For Colorado, keeping a player of his caliber was always going to be expensive.

But that is where the real question surrounding this deal begins.

Is $20.4 million per year too much?

Makar absolutely deserves to be paid like one of the best players in hockey. However, the NHL’s salary-cap system means every dollar committed to one player affects how much a team can spend elsewhere.

By giving Makar the highest annual salary in NHL history, the Avalanche are making a massive long-term investment in one player. That could eventually make it more difficult for Colorado to retain other key players or add expensive free agents in the future.

That doesn’t necessarily make the deal a mistake.

Elite players are extremely difficult to replace, and Makar is exactly the type of franchise player teams build around. If Colorado had allowed him to reach free agency, the Avalanche could have faced the possibility of losing one of the best defensemen in the world.

Still, the contract creates an interesting challenge for the front office.

The Avalanche will now have to build the rest of their roster around a player making $20.4 million per season. If the salary cap continues to rise significantly, that task could become easier. But if Colorado wants to continue surrounding Makar with elite talent, every future contract decision will matter.

At the end of the day, this is a deal that makes sense for both sides.

Makar gets the historic contract he has earned, while Colorado keeps one of the NHL’s most important players for the long term.

The Avalanche have secured their superstar defenseman. Now comes the difficult part: building a championship roster around the most expensive annual contract in NHL history.