Cale Makar was playing through an injury late in the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs, and the Colorado Avalanche certainly felt his absence while being swept by the Vegas Golden Knights in the Western Conference Final.

The hope was that the superstar defenseman would be healthy after a couple of months off, but he is now dealing with a new ailment as the club prepares to open training camp ahead of the 2026-27 season.

Makar has a lower-body injury that surfaced during offseason training, head coach Jared Bednar confirmed to reporters Wednesday.

“He's been on the ice. He's just on a little bit of a lighter program than probably most of our guys coming into main camp,” the bench boss said, per NHL.com. “So we'll see how that sort of sorts out. Whether he's ready to go Day 1 of training camp is probably unlikely. Just kind of playing it safe with him and our organization, but at some point in camp he'll be full go.

“I don't think it's anything to be worried about at this point. It's not related to the injury he had last year in the playoffs. It's just something new that popped up here with training.”

The Avalanche's training camp got underway on Thursday, and Makar was spotted with the main group for 20 minutes before going to the locker room, per, Colorado reporter Jesse Montano.

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The Alberta native missed two games during the postseason because of an upper-body injury and wasn't himself for much of the run. He failed to record a point over the final four games of Colorado's five-game second-round victory over the Minnesota Wild and was also held off the scoresheet in Games 3 and 4 against Vegas.

Although it's encouraging that the ailment is unrelated to last season's injury, it's still an unfortunate update with the 2026-27 NHL regular season set to begin in less than two weeks.

Makar was excellent again during the 2025-26 regular season, amassing 20 goals and 79 points over 75 games while logging just under 25 minutes of ice time per contest.

He was a Norris Trophy finalist for the sixth consecutive season, although Columbus Blue Jackets blueliner Zach Werenski ultimately won the award.

The 27-year-old signed a mammoth eight-year, $163.2 million contract extension at the end of August that will begin in 2027-28.

Bednar expects Makar to be a full participant at some point during training camp, and the hope is that he will be completely healthy when Colorado opens its regular season against the Los Angeles Kings on Sept. 30.