Avalanche Roundtable: MacK or Mak?

With it looking like hockey creeping its way back to a return, the playoffs become the focus. Along with that comes playoff performances, which define legacies and secure places in the Hall of Fame.

All of that in mind, let’s get to today’s topic: Which player is more important if Colorado is going to make a legitimate Stanley Cup run: Nathan MacKinnon or Cale Makar? In other words, if one player were to flop during the postseason, which one could Colorado survive struggling and still be successful?

AJ: I think it’s MacKinnon but I’m gritting my teeth. We’ve seen teams make successful runs with mediocre play from the back end but it requires an elite center to make it happen. We’ve also seen lower end centers win with great defense (see: St. Louis), so it could go either way. For now, though, Makar’s defensive game is still a work in progress and MacKinnon is right in his prime and firing on all the superstar cylinders. He’s never been below a PPG in his career in the playoffs and with the best supporting cast of his career, I’m looking forward to seeing what the next level for him looks like. If he hits it, the Avs are the favorite to come out of the West.

This answer might be Makar in a year or two but we’re not there yet. If Colorado is to make a Cup run this summer (weird to say), I think it has to be on the back of Nathan MacKinnon.

Evan: At the moment, I’m going to lean towards MacKinnon. Elite centers are always huge for teams in the postseason, and a lot of winners over the years have two of them, actually. The Avs don’t have that, which makes MacKinnon even more important. He consistently drives the play offensively for this team, and that will be huge in the playoffs when things tighten up a good bit. Makar is great now and is going to be fantastic very quickly, but having seen teams win with a “defense by committee” before, I think an elite center gets the nod here. Luckily for the Avs, they don’t have to choose.

Rudo: As we’ve been hashing out the Avs impressive offensive depth the last few days, MacKinnon struggling might actually be something the Avs could survive in the short term. It’s also the matter of MacKinnon struggling is realistically still putting up a few points over a seven-game series (he never went three straight games without a point this season). With the idea that MacKinnon will get his in mind I’m taking Makar as the more important player. While the forward core has a point per game player in Rantanen and multiple strong point producers in the rest of the top six the defense simply does not have anything nearly as reliable as Makar when it comes to scoring. Cale’s defense isn’t Strava Craft Coffee level game-changing but I do think quite a few people underrate it and it’s importance to the Avs at 5 on 5. As weird as it feels to say, as the Avs are currently built, MacKinnon is more replaceable than Makar.

Realistically this is a pick’em, MacKinnon is the guy you expect to win the Conn Smythe, Makar is the x-factor on the back end that is always a threat to be a difference-maker. With the realities of rust and some uncertainty in net the Avs may well need both on point to make a real run.