He said one aspect of Makar's game that will improve and evolve over time is his physicality.
"He's a physical presence and as he gets older and stronger, I think that's going to start to become evident as well," he said. "In college, he could step up on kids and use that strength, and his is not weight room strength, it's hockey strength. He's not the strongest kid in the weight room, but on the ice, he's got that hockey strength.
"Winning a hockey battle in the corner is much different than squatting a barbell. It takes balance, it takes timing, it takes intuition and he just has this power very similar to his skating. When he needs power to go through another hockey player ... he has that."
Voting totals (points awarded on a 5-4-3-2-1 basis):Cale Makar, Avalanche, 100 points (20 first-place votes); Quinn Hughes, Canucks, 66 points; Victor Olofsson, Sabres, 57 points; Martin Necas, Hurricanes, 16 points; Jack Hughes, Devils, 15 points; Kaapo Kakko, New York Rangers, 15 points; Ethan Bear, Edmonton Oilers, 11 points; Thatcher Demko, Canucks, 7 points; Mackenzie Blackwood, Devils, 5 points; Ilya Mikheyev, Toronto Maple Leafs, 5 points; Ilya Samsonov, Washington Capitals, 1 point; Adam Fox, Rangers, 1 point; Kirby Dach, Chicago Blackhawks, 1 point.