Makar Is Staying. Now Colorado Has to Figure Out Everything Else.

The news that Cale Makar is re-signing in Colorado is not surprising — it was always the expected outcome — but the confirmation matters. A contract potentially worth more than $130 million takes time to finalize, and until it does, it occupies a corner of every other decision the front office makes this offseason. The foundation is secure. That part is settled.

What isn't settled is the depth picture I've been writing about all summer. Jaden Schwartz signed July 1, has not played, and his timeline remains unclear. Georgii Merkulov is here on a one-year deal. The right wing position that Nichushkin vacated when he was traded to Columbus remains thin. Those problems don't pause while the Makar negotiation runs its course.

The honest read on where Colorado stands right now: the top of the roster is elite and getting locked in, and the bottom of it is still unresolved. Makar posted 14 goals and 41 assists last season. MacKinnon and Necas combined for 144 points. That group will be here. What cost them four straight games against Vegas after going up 2-0 was the secondary scoring — the forwards who generated shots and didn't convert, the one-goal games they lost at a rate that would embarrass a bubble team. None of that has been fixed yet.

The Makar news is the right headline today. But training camp is coming, and the questions I've been tracking since July haven't moved.