Cale Makar sets franchise record with six points as Avalanche crushes depleted Sharks

The Colorado Avalanche has waited all season to be healthy. It finally happened, and the Avs put on a show.

Cale Makar set a franchise record for defensemen with six points and the Avs scored on their first three power-play opportunities of the night en route to a 7-3 win Thursday night against the depleted San Jose Sharks at Ball Arena.

Makar became the first defenseman to have at least two goals and six points in a game since Paul Coffey did it on March 14, 1986.

“Just amazing. Tough to find a better player in this league, playing half the game, doing what he does every night,” Avs star Nathan MacKinnon, who also had five points, said. “It’s fun to see every night.”

It was the fourth straight win for the Avalanche. Colorado is now 18-7 this season when Valeri Nichushkin is in the lineup and 19-7-2 when he is not.

The NHL trade deadline is 1 p.m. Friday, and the Avs already made another seismic move during this game. Colorado traded top prospect Calum Ritchie, a first-round pick in 2026 or 2027, a conditional 2028 third-round pick and defenseman Oliver Kylington to the New York Islanders for center Brock Nelson and prospect William Dufour.

Nelson, 33, has 20 goals and 43 points for the Islanders this season and was considered one of the top forwards available on the trade market. He is in the final year of his contract.

Just getting healthy, plus the additions they’ve already made, made the Avs look pretty formidable against the Sharks.

“I thought we were dialed in, focused and on our toes right from the start,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “We had really good hunger. I loved our first period.”

MacKinnon had two goals and three assists, moving him three away from 1,000 in his career and into 100th place in NHL history. Martin Necas added a goal and an assist, giving him 15 points in 14 games since arriving from Carolina in the blockbuster deal, while Mikko Rantanen’s future with the Hurricanes is still unclear.

San Jose traded ex-Avs center Nico Sturm and held both defenseman Jake Walman and wing Luke Kunin out of the lineup ahead of potential deals. Meanwhile, this was the first game of the season in which the Avs were completely healthy, not counting captain Gabe Landeskog.

The disparity was evident from the start. The Avs had a welcome-back video ready for Georgiev, but he and the depleted Sharks were down 2-0 before the first timeout. Joel Kiviranta scored on a shorthanded rush at 4:19, and then Makar blasted one past his former teammate on the power play at 6:43 of the opening period.

Fabian Zetterlund got San Jose on the board with a power-play goal. Ex-Avs forward Nikolai Kovalenko knocked Makar’s stick out of his hands, and eventually Colin Graf fed a pass to Zetterlund at the far post for a layup at 10:08 of the period.

The next two Colorado power-play goals came 43 seconds apart. They were both noteworthy.

Jonathan Drouin finished off one of the goals of the season for the club with 2.1 seconds left in the opening period. The passing play went MacKinnon to Artturi Lehkonen to Necas to Drouin, with Necas’ final pass going through Georgiev’s legs to Drouin at the far post.

Necas scored 40 seconds into the second period, and just three seconds after a San Jose penalty. MacKinnon won the faceoff back to Makar, and then Necas blasted a one-timer from him into the net for his fifth goal with the Avs and 21st of the season.

MacKinnon and Makar both added goals in the third period as well.

“It felt like they couldn’t miss tonight,” Bednar said. “Real good work ethic and competitiveness from those guys. I think it always starts there, if you’re going to have a good night. And then their skill just took over.”

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