Cale Makar's brother has signed an NHL contract!

There is now a second Makar in the National Hockey League... well sort of.

On Monday, the Colorado Avalanche announced that they had signed Taylor Makar to a one year entry level NHL contract, a contract that is set to kick in next season during the 2025-26 regular season.

Makar, 24, is the younger brother of 26 year old NHL superstar Cale Makar and there is good reason to think that the family connection between these two men played a role in today's big announcement.

Unlike his brother, Taylor Makar is a forward and most recently spent a season at the University of Maine where he had a career best season in the NCAA. After spending the first three seasons of his collegiate career with the University of Massachusetts Amherst where he only saw middling success, Makar exploded for a career high 18 goals, a career high 12 assists, and a career high 30 points over 38 games in his lone season with the Maine Black Bears.

While there's no question that Makar's ties to his brother played a role in getting him noticed, it must be said that he did himself a lot of favors with such a strong performance in his final season of collegiate hockey. NHL teams are not in the business of handing out contracts as favors to one player or another, and it seems more than fair to suggest that Makar has earned his way here.

Makar was originally selected in the 7th round (220th overall) of the 2021 NHL Entry Draft by the Avalanche and if he does prove to be a capable player at the NHL level this will become a gamble that has paid off for the Avalanche.