Makar: Avalanche 'itching to get back' after extended offseason

Colorado Avalanche superstar Cale Makar believes a longer-than-usual offseason will bode well for his club heading into the 2023-24 campaign.

Makar and the Avalanche won the 2022 Stanley Cup after a postseason run that nearly went into July. This time, the club is rested after a shock first-round upset against the Seattle Kraken in late April.

"I know a lot of the guys are itching to get back to camp. … A lot of the guys will get in a couple weeks before camp, so it should be awesome," Makar told NHL.com's Dan Rosen on Tuesday.

The blue-liner added that the players would've "wanted a little bit (more) time to make sure" they could recover mentally and physically after their successful 2022 run.

"It's a win-lose scenario, but one of the things for us as a team being unfortunately eliminated early is it gave us a little more rest time," he said. "For a team that was so banged up this past year and had so many man-games lost, I think that was huge. I think a lot of guys really took advantage.

"It mentally can give us a little bit of a break and clear it; guys can reset a little bit. Everything felt like it was in superspeed mode last summer."

Injuries limited Makar to 60 games last season. He still managed 66 points while averaging over 26 minutes per night and was a Norris Trophy finalist for the third consecutive year.

Colorado's roster depth underwent plenty of turnover this summer. The team lost Evan Rodrigues, Alex Newhook, J.T. Compher, Lars Eller, and Erik Johnson, while adding Ryan Johansen, Ross Colton, Miles Wood, and Jonathan Drouin.

Prior to the Round 1 loss to the Kraken, the Avalanche had reached at least the second round of the playoffs each season since 2018-19.