Avalanche defenseman named first star for the month of October

DENVER — Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar has been named the National Hockey League’s (NHL) first star for the month of October.

Makar shares the league lead in points (19) with Vegas Golden Knight’s forward Mark Stone. Makar is also the second defenseman in NHL history to have a season-opening point streak of at least 11 games. The first defenseman to do that was Boston’s Bobby Orr in the 1973-74 season.

Makar topped the October leaderboard in assists (15), power-play assists (8) and power-play points (t-9). 

Makar reached his 350 career point mark in his 322nd NHL game. This makes him the third fastest defenseman to reach this feat, only behind Orr (306 games played) and Paul Coffey (319 games played).

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Makar’s 1.09 points per game is the second highest among defenseman. Again, only trailing Orr who had 1.39 points per game.

The other two stars named for the month of October were Kyle Connor of the Winnipeg Jets and Krill Kaprizov of the Minnesota Wild.

People living in the Denver metro and surrounding areas of Colorado can watch 40 Nuggets and Avalanche games on 9NEWS’ sister station KTVD Ch. 20 for free over-the-air with a digital antenna.

Kroenke Sports & Entertainment and 9NEWS announced a deal on Thursday to broadcast 20 Nuggets and 20 Avalanche games of the 2024-25 season on KTVD Ch. 20. Several games will also be simulcast on 9NEWS.

You can watch both stations for free with an antenna connected to your TV. You’ll find 9NEWS KTVD, the MyNetwork TV affiliate, on channel 20.1 and 9NEWS KUSA, the NBC affiliate, on channels 9.1 and 9.4.