Avalanche supports NCAA development route for Tyson Jost, Cale Makar

Avalanche first-round draft pick Cale Makar is beginning a similar path taken by the team’s 2016 first-round pick, Tyson Jost. And because the development model worked out for Jost — a center who signed with the Avs after one season at North Dakota — the team is optimistic it will also work for Makar, a University of Massachusetts-bound defenseman.

Jost and Maker became top-10 NHL draft picks from playing in a Tier II Canadian junior-A league. Both chose the college hockey route, and each wanted desperately to be a rare collegian for Team Canada at the world junior championship.

Jost, who was selected 10th overall in the 2016 draft, represented his country at the WJC last winter and had an…