Colorado is going through an early-season avalanche of injuries, as the Avs will see both Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar sit out for a period of time.
The Avalanche (11-6-3, 25 points) stars will be sidelined for multiple weeks with lower-body injuries, coach Jared Bednar told reporters Saturday.
MacKinnon will miss at least a month, while Makar will be out for two weeks. Both players got hurt Thursday night in a 4-3 loss to the Ottawa Senators (12-6-2, 26 points).
MacKinnon, the Avalanche’s leader in points (30) and assists (20), left with just over eight minutes remaining in the loss after a check from Senators defenseman Artem Zub in the hip area. MacKinnon was seen grabbing his right side as he headed off the ice.
Makar, who appeared to suffer a noncontact injury while stopping in Colorado’s offensive end, left the game not long before MacKinnon’s exit.
The injuries are a significant blow to Colorado, which relies heavily on them for offense. MacKinnon and Makar are both on the top power-play unit, which has scored 10 goals in the past 10 games.
“Probably the most important is the 5-on-5 offense that they create,” Bednar told reporters, per NHL.com. “We can be playing an OK game, chances equal, tight game, and those guys, like the top players do, will find a way to make a play that’s a difference-maker for you. Whether it’s Cale or ‘Mac,’ or both of them combined, they generally win us a lot of hockey games because of that.”
Colorado’s injury woes seem to continue from last season, when they were eliminated in the 2026 Western Conference Finals in a 4-0 sweep by the Vegas Golden Knights, which saw Makar sidelined for most of the series.
Colorado is already without defenseman Josh Manson, who is on long-term injured reserve with an ankle injury.
The Avalanche rattled off six more wins after opening the season 5-4-1 and are third in the Central Division heading into Saturday.
Colorado knows it won’t be easy to replace MacKinnon and Makar.
“When I think about those two guys, it’s like every matchup, they take it on, now someone else has to be able to step up and do that,” Bednar said. “And then you are losing the depth down the lineup as you kind of do that because everyone is elevated.”
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