DENVER — 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.