Avalanche star Cale Makar will miss time with injury; playoffs not in jeopardy

Corey Masisak, The Denver Post on Apr 1, 2026

Published in Hockey

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

DENVER — Colorado Avalanche star Cale Makar will not play Wednesday night, and will “miss some time” with an upper-body injury, coach Jared Bednar said.

Makar did not play in the third period Monday night of a 9-2 win against the Calgary Flames. Nick Blankenburg will replace Makar in the lineup Wednesday night at Ball Arena against the Vancouver Canucks. Sam Malinski will take his place quarterbacking the top power-play unit.

“He’s doing OK,” Bednar said. “He going to miss some time, though. Nothing serious, like nothing that is putting playoffs in jeopardy or anything like that. But like I said with Nic Roy, if someone has something going on at this time of the year, we want to make sure they’re right for playoffs and the last handful of games of the season. So yeah, we’re going to keep him out for a little bit.”

Calgary forward Adam Klapka checked Makar into the boards late in the second period Monday. Makar took two more shifts, including one that ended with his assist on a Nathan MacKinnon power-play goal, but did not return for the final 20 minutes.

Makar has 20 goals and 75 points in 73 games this season. Malinski has only logged 11:09 of ice time on the power play this season — far less than Devon Toews and Brent Burns — but Bednar said Malinski is producing the most in the offensive zone right now and sees it as a good opportunity to take a lot at one of the club’s breakout players of the season.

“It’s a big responsibility, for sure,” Malinski said. “It’s not like I haven’t run a power play before. It’s been a little while for me, but … it’s pretty good players. I can just kind of give them the puck and watch them go.”

Malinski has five goals and 34 points, which is seventh on the Avs and second among defensemen behind Makar, this season. Blankenburg has played three games for the Avs since arriving just before the trade deadline from Nashville.