Mailbag: Bedard's status for potential Olympic run with Canada; next Makar contract

NHL.com's weekly Over the Boards mailbag is in full swing this season. Every week, senior writer Dan Rosen sifts through your questions sent to him on X and chooses several to answer.

To participate in future mailbags, send your questions to @drosennhl on X and use #OvertheBoards.

With Connor Bedard's injury, does Canada still add him to the roster and then just replace him if he can't go to the Olympics? -- @CHI_guy08

Bedard deserves to be named to Team Canada on Dec. 31. From there, we'll see, because being named to the roster and actually being available to play at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 in February are two different things.

The Chicago Blackhawks center will be out for the rest of December with an upper-body injury and be reevaluated in January, coach Jeff Blashill said Monday. Nothing should change if Hockey Canada was already planning to pick Bedard for the Olympic team unless the management staff led by general manager Doug Armstrong has been told that the 20-year-old will not be ready to play at a high level come Feb. 12, when Canada plays Czechia in its first game. If that's the case, Armstrong and Hockey Canada would have two firm legs to stand on and it wouldn't make sense to name him to the team, but that information might not be available Dec. 31, and Canada doesn't need it anyway. Bedard has played his way onto the team this season, so Canada can name him to the roster and then evaluate him like the Blackhawks are going to do in January.

There are Plan Bs and Plan Cs. Bedard might be getting healthy at another time a player Canada picks to be on the Olympic team is injured. The job is to not just pick the best team, it's to plan for all possible scenarios in selecting that team. Name him, evaluate, and if he can't play then you replace him. Seems simple to me.

You predicted Cale Makar will re-sign for eight years with an AAV of $16 million. Don't you think Makar could take less money so the Avalanche have a deeper roster? What if the Avalanche is short money and can offer "only" $12-13.5 million? -- @Haldol25

An eight-year, $128 million contract (average annual value of $16 million) was my prediction in the Mailbag that ran Nov. 5. Makar is eligible to re-sign July 1. The Colorado Avalanche are likely planning for Makar's next contract, and it would be stunning if they didn't have the cap space to sign him to the same type of contract he would be able to get on the open market, so I don't think they would be short money.

To your point, yes, Makar could look to take less, but the salary cap is going up to $113.5 million for the 2027-28 season, when his next contract would begin. Currently, Makar's $9.0 million AAV takes up 9.4 percent of the $95.5 million salary cap. A $16 million AAV in 2027-28 would take up 14.1 percent of the $113.5 million cap. Assuming the cap continues to rise, the percentage of his AAV on the cap would continue to drop, which makes a $16 million AAV fair for a player like Makar and reasonable for Colorado over the long term.

Any insight on who Chris Drury might have offered up for Quinn Hughes? Supposedly the New York Rangers were in. And would this give a hint to players he might shop for an upgrade? Maybe Jordan Kyrou or Alex Tuch? -- @Kapo640

I do not know who the Rangers offered in a package to acquire Hughes from the Vancouver Canucks before he was traded to the Minnesota Wild on Friday. The Rangers were one of six teams in serious consideration to get him, according TSN and The Athletic. My educated guess is Alexis Lafreniere, Braden Schneider and a first-round pick were part of the package they might have offered to Vancouver. I have not been told that by anybody associated with the Rangers.

If you look at the return the Canucks got from the Wild -- center Marco Rossi, defenseman Zeev Buium, forward Liam Ohgren and a first-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft -- you can see why the Rangers couldn't match it. Vancouver clearly wanted a young center to play a big role, i.e. Rossi. New York does not have a young center ready to play a big role. The Canucks wanted a defenseman, preferably young and a left-handed shot to replace Hughes. The Rangers don't have anyone like Buium, a 20-year-old left-shot defenseman and the No. 12 pick in the 2024 NHL Draft. Vancouver wanted a prospect (Ohgren) and a first-round pick. New York has those assets, but it couldn't satisfy the Canucks' first two demands, so it wasn't going to be able to get it done.

The Rangers' reported high-level involvement in the Hughes sweepstakes signals their interest in upgrading the roster this season and for the future. Hughes is an outlier in the fact that he's one of the best players in the League. It's not out of the question, but it is against the odds that another player of his caliber will come along as a potential trade option for New York or any other team this season. But the Rangers should be scouring the trade market, and since the cost for who is available won't be as high as it was for Hughes, they should be heavily involved.

Do the Devils make a reaction trade now that Dougie Hamilton and Ondrej Palat are in rumor mill talks? -- @_JMIII

I wouldn't call it a reaction trade to not landing Quinn Hughes if the Devils make moves in the coming days and weeks. I'd call it necessary and smart business, depending on the trade. They weren't in the Hughes sweepstakes just to be in it so he could play with his brothers, Jack and Luke. They were in it because of the need to get deeper and better to make a Stanley Cup run. Hughes was a unicorn that was available. It's rare that one of the best players in the world becomes available in a trade two months into the season. It would have been negligent on New Jersey's part if it wasn't involved, especially since his brothers play there.

I wonder if the Devils pivot to their need of a third-line center. When Jack Hughes is healthy, he and Nico Hischier make up one of the League's best 1-2 combinations down the middle. But if New Jersey was to get a reliable and steady third-line center who can win defensive zone face-offs, kill penalties and still provide some offense (Ryan O'Reilly?) it would fill out its lineup, and specifically keep Dawson Mercer on the wing. The Devils have the forward depth to be able to trade Palat. If they can get Brett Pesce back healthy, they would also be able to absorb losing a player like Hamilton, especially if they can also acquire a bottom-six defenseman to fill out their blue line depth.

New Jersey has needs it can address now knowing it doesn't have to save a certain amount of cap space because of the potential of acquiring Quinn Hughes this season, but it can still make other moves to improve its chances of competing for the Stanley Cup this season. That's reasonable, not reactionary.

Is it worth shutting down the NHL for the Olympic break? As great as the 4 Nations Face-Off was, injuries were the top story during that tournament. Teams will play as hard, if not harder, for an Olympic gold medal. Not sure if it's worth losing a shot at the Cup. -- @RangersProud

There are undoubtedly a lot of what-if questions and related concerns regarding shutting down the season in February to allow NHL players the opportunity to play in the Olympics. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman has been open to addressing those concerns over the years, but in the end the League decided now was the right time to go back to the Olympics because of the desires of the players, emphasized to the NHL through the strong working relationship it has with the NHL Players' Association. The NHL and NHLPA are in lockstep, and that's great for the game.

This is a grand opportunity for the players; and for many it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The players of today grew up watching their favorite players in the Olympics, some recalling the League's first foray into Olympic hockey at Nagano, Japan, in 1998, carrying on to 2002 (Salt Lake City) and Canada's first Olympic gold medal in men's hockey in 50 years, Sweden's gold in 2006 (Turin), Sidney Crosby's golden goal in 2010 (Vancouver) and Carey Price leading Canada to a second straight Olympic gold at the 2014 Sochi Games.

There was obvious disappointment the League was unable to send players to Beijing for the 2022 Olympics because of the impact of COVID-19 on NHL business, but the players are going in February and will return in 2030 per the Collective Bargaining Agreement. It gives the best players in the world who represent the best league in the world the opportunity to represent their country on a global stage.

Yes, injuries are a concern, but they were not the biggest storyline at the 4 Nations Face-Off last season. The biggest storyline there was the rivalry between Canada and the United States, and watching that play out live created some of the most intense moments we have seen in hockey in years. If that happens again in Milan, it will mean continued growing interest in the global game, which can have a trickle-down effect to be great for the NHL and its business.