The Best Defenseman In The World Returns To Practice (Updated)

The Colorado Avalanche were back at practice on Friday morning, and for the first time all camp, Cale Makar has joined them.

The best defenseman in the world was back in his usual spot, paired with Devon Toews for group one of practice. There does not appear to be any limitations with him either, as he was in a full-contact jersey.

We’ll speak to Jared Bednar after practice for any updates, and we’ll see if Cale Makar speaks to the media. Seeing as how it’s his first practice back, the Avalanche might hold off on letting him talk.

Looks like Cale Makar will join the team for skate today. pic.twitter.com/hf3ORLqPKg

— Evan Rawal (@evanrawal) September 29, 2023

After practice, Makar spoke, and his comments might not make anyone feel better.

“Just started to feel maybe a little bit better, so it’s good,” he said.

Head coach Jared Bednar mentioned that he would like to see Makar in a preseason game, if possible. Makar agrees, but he isn’t going to push to play one if he isn’t fully ready.

“I want to,” Makar said about playing in a preseason game. “I think my brain just kind of goes back to a few years ago when I had my hand issue going on, and didn’t get to play preseason. It’s definitely nice to play one, but I want to make sure I’m ready and I can play an 82 game season, and put myself in the best spot for that.”

Makar, who confirmed it’s a lower-body issue he’s dealing with, isn’t quite ready to declare himself 100%.

“Yeah, getting there,” he said. “It’s tough. Stuff like this, the more you work on it, the better is going to kind of get. It’s just been kind of a long process, and stuff never really gets worse, but it hasn’t really gotten much better. I’m confident that hopefully it can just continue to hold up.”

To my eyes, Makar looked pretty good on the ice, and ran the top powerplay unit, as you would expect. We’ll see if he gets into any preseason games at this point.