Tulsky's decision to keep Necas a key to Hurricanes' success this season
Published
Carolina Hurricanes forward Martin Necas reportedly asked for a trade at the end of last season as the third-line player wanted a bigger role with the team.
Eric Tulsky, who was named Carolina's permanent general manager this summer after taking over for long-time GM Don Waddell in May, listened to plenty of offers for the 25-year-old this off-season, but ended up signing him to a two-year contract featuring an average annual value of $6.5 million, avoiding salary arbitration.
“There was never a question of whether we could get him into camp [because he filed for arbitration],” Tulsky told Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic. “The only question was whether there was another option that would blow us away. And nothing did. So we’re happy to have him back and we’re glad to see his season go the way it is.”
Keeping Necas in Carolina turned out to be one of the best moves of the summer as the native of Czech Republic is having a terrific season, netting 11 goals and 19 assists over 17 games. His 30 points leads his team by a 14-point margin and is third-best in the entire NHL behind Nathan MacKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche (34 points) and Kirill Kaprizov of the Minnesota Wild (31 points).
According to LeBrun, 28 teams inquired about Necas' services with different levels of interest. LeBrun reports that the league-leading Winnipeg Jets had a major interest, but Necas not wanting to sign a long-term deal in Winnipeg ended the trade discussions.
The Columbus Blue Jackets, Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs were also involved, says LeBrun, but nothing ever came too close.
“We had serious offers, but nothing that we were anguishing about doing,” Tulsky told LeBrun.
Tulsky is happy with how things turned out to say the least.
“We looked at a lot of things with a lot of [trade] options to consider, nothing got to where it made sense,” said Tulsky. “We know he had this kind of upside, so part of the conversation was always that he had two more RFA years, and let’s see if he hits [his] upside before we think about any other options.”
The rookie general manager had a busy off-season aside from dealing with Necas. The Hurricanes lost forward Jake Guentzel as well as defencemen Brady Skjei and Brett Pesce in free agency before adding forwards Jack Roslovic, William Carrier, Eric Robinson and Tyson Jost and blueliners Sean Walker and Shayne Gostisbehere.
The moves have made a difference as the Hurricanes are 13-4 this season with 26 points and a .765 win percentage, second behind only the Jets in the entire NHL.
“When you have five or six or seven new players, you probably have to assume that one or two or three of them are going to come in and not be quite what you hoped or not fit in quite the way you hoped,” Tulsky said. “But our pro scouting staff did a great job of really focusing on who would be able to play the way we wanted to play — and who would look better here than they might for some other team.
“And every single player that has come in has just fit.”
After recording a career-high 71 points in 2022-23, Necas dropped down to 53 points last season, scoring 24 goals and 29 points in 77 games. He had a nice playoff run with four goals and five assists over 11 games as the 'Canes were eliminated in the second round by the New York Rangers in six games.
Selected by Carolina with the 12th overall pick in the 2017 NHL Draft, Necas has 108 goals and 165 assists over 379 career games, adding 11 goals and 19 assists over 59 playoff games.
Necas will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2025-26 campaign.