Colorado Avalanche Facing Another Summer Cap Crunch
The unfortunate reality of a salary-cap world is that success becomes a punishment that snowballs over time, as it leads to more expensive rosters year after year. That is where the Colorado Avalanche find themselves this summer after winning the Presidents’ Trophy this season. The Avalanche have massive money committed to their core, with new extensions set to kick in, other players seeking raises, and roster holes sure to be created by tough decisions coming Colorado’s way. The trade of superstar Mikko Rantanen last year was supposed to help the team avoid long-term cap issues, but just 16 months later, they are headed towards cap trouble anyway. As of today, Colorado has just under $3MM in available cap space with just 17 players signed, making it impossible to ice a full roster as currently constructed (all numbers via PuckPedia). The Avalanche have no choice but to make tough decisions, especially if they want to re-sign Jack Drury, who was one of the pieces in the Rantanen trade.
Since the Avalanche moved on from Rantanen, they have made three key moves that have consumed roughly $25MM in cap space. Those moves included acquiring and extending Martin Necas and Brock Nelson, as well as the trade-deadline pickup of Nazem Kadri from the Calgary Flames. These moves aren’t the primary reason Colorado is in cap trouble, but they’ve taken up a huge chunk of cap space and left the team top-heavy.
It was clear in the Vegas series that Colorado’s depth wasn’t enough to advance past the Western Conference Finals, and it’s hard to see that depth improving anytime soon. None of the moves for Necas, Nelson or Kadri were bad, and they were clearly made to give the team more firepower for an inevitably difficult playoff series. But when you add the contracts of defensemen Devon Toews ($7.25MM) and Cale Makar ($9MM), as well as forwards Gabriel Landeskog ($7MM) and Valeri Nichushkin ($6.125MM), you have another $30MM committed to the top of the team’s lineup, which eats away at depth.
Now, that issue hasn’t necessarily happened yet to the Avalanche. Through the first two rounds of this year’s playoffs, they received plenty of depth scoring, but that dried up against Vegas, and some forwards are going to need to be moved. This will always be an issue for top teams, as their cheap depth gets cycled out yearly when those players get to play with a team’s top stars, inflate their statistics, and cash in elsewhere. This makes it difficult to keep secondary scoring in the fray and forces the team to try to find cheap depth on the open market or bring up AHL players who may not be ready for the NHL. This is something that Florida and Vegas have done a great job of in recent years, but it’s become more of a struggle for Colorado, which may need to move several mid-tier contracts out the door or a top-tier player.
The obvious depth player to move is forward Ross Colton, who had a disappointing campaign with just 24 points in 73 games. Colton ranks 22nd on Chris Johnston’s offseason trade board and has one year left on his $4MM contract. Colorado can’t afford that kind of price tag on a bottom-six forward, but moving him alone will not be close to enough.
Another potential depth piece to move out is the recently acquired forward Nicolas Roy. The Avalanche picked up the 29-year-old from the Toronto Maple Leafs before the trade deadline in exchange for a first-round draft pick in 2027 and a fifth-round draft pick in 2026. Roy took some time to settle into the lineup but had a decent playoff showing in the first two rounds before going ice cold in the Western Conference Finals. However, even moving Roy along with Colton wouldn’t exactly solve the issues, as their absence would create two additional roster holes, leaving Colorado with just under $10MM in cap space and eight players to sign.
Roy might be worth keeping for one more season, given his low salary, but Colorado faces a difficult choice: a big talent has to go, or some combination of higher-end roster players has to go. Artturi Lehkonen and his $4.5MM could be moved, but the best move might be to send out Colton and Nichushkin. That would free up an additional $10.125MM. Colorado would then have a few internal options to bring back and fill out their roster. AFP Analytics projects Drury to earn around $3MM per year on a three-year deal, while Zakhar Bardakov is likely looking at a one-year deal at league minimum ($850K). Bringing in defenseman Brent Burns would also cost around $1MM, leaving Colorado with around $8MM under the cap and just five players to sign. It’s not an impossible task, but not an ideal one either.
Then there is the looming Makar extension that management will try to iron out this summer. That contract will likely make Makar the highest-paid defenseman in the NHL, topping the likes of Rasmus Dahlin and perhaps falling in the $13MM to $15MM range. If the negotiations drag into the summer or training camp, they could create an elephant in the room for Colorado.
This summer could be quiet for the Avalanche, but it could also be one in which they pivot, trying to get a little younger and perhaps a little less expensive. All will be answered in the future, but it could be a tough summer for Avalanche fans as they watch their roster plateau while the teams around them look to improve.
Avalanche Still Big Winners In Martin Necas Acquisition
True NHL dynasties are often defined by more than their roster. It takes confident management decisions to stick at the top of the NHL year-over-year. The Colorado Avalanche proved their willingness to make a big swing in their handling of Mikko Rantanen‘s trade ahead of the 2025 Trade Deadline. Facing a costly contract extension, Colorado opted to trade Rantanen to the Carolina Hurricanes in late-January. The sudden deal wouldn’t stick for Carolina – who flipped Rantanen to Dallas. The fruits of the move were much more direct for Colorado, who took a homerun swing on Martin Necas‘ ability to replace Rantanen’s role. One season later, as Necas rivals the first 100-point season of his career, it seems the Avalanche hit it well out of the park.
Necas was an instant impact for the Avalanche in the second-half of last season. He scored 11 goals and 28 points in 30 games to close out the regular season, bringing his year-long totals up to 83 points in 79 games. Even through a cloud of trade drama, that performance was a career-year for Necas, whose previous career-high was 71 points. A full summer to adjust to Colorado’s system has quickly made both of his previous heights look slim.
Necas has racked up 36 goals, 94 points, and a plus-46 through 72 games this season. All three of those stats are new personal-bests – eight goals, 11 points, and plus-21 higher than his previous bests. That success comes alongside a league-best performance from the Avalanche roster, led by superstar Nathan MacKinnon, Necas’ new batterymate. MacKinnon’s all-out energy and control over play has allowed Necas to focus on his strengths – but his improvements stand out apart from the top-tier support. Necas has looked explosive off the rush and added a goal-scorer’s ability to bury chances through traffic. He has been there to finish the chances that MacKinnon creates, one of the roles that Rantanen filled in his back-to-back 100-point seasons in 2022-23 and 2023-24. With only four games left on Colorado’s schedule Necas likely won’t reach the 105 points that Rantanen scored in his best year – but he nonetheless brings century-scoring capability to the lineup.
The near-seamless replacement can make it easy to forget the rest of Colorado’s return. The Avalanche also brought in feisty, depth forward Jack Drury and draft capital from the Rantanen trade. They packaged one of those picks – a 2025 second-round pick – alongside William Zellers and Casey Mittelstadt to acquire Charlie Coyle and a pick from the Boston Bruins at the 2025 Trade Deadline. Colorado went one step further after the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs, trading Coyle and Miles Wood to the Columbus Blue Jackets for prospect Gavin Brindley, a 2027 second-round pick, and a 2025 third-round pick used on defense prospect Francesco Dell’Elce. Drury and Brindley have already shored up Colorado’s depth chart, while the additional capital boosted a bare Avalanche prospect room.
Reliable depth and future upside are fantastic additions to the value that Necas has brought to the top-line. Colorado also signed Necas to a deal $500K cheaper, and one year longer, than Rantanen landed in Dallas. The Avalanche have won every bet they made in a confusing, and surprising, trade of a top-line star. Even if the 2025-26 season stands as Necas’ career-year, his impact next to MacKinnon could help Colorado stick in Stanley Cup contention through the end of the 2020’s. The Avalanche sit confidently on top of the league – six points ahead of the second-place Hurricanes – with the end of the season nearing. They will enter the Stanley Cup Playoffs as the favorite out of the Western Conference, offering a chance to build on their 2022 Cup win.
Injury Notes: Bennett, Avalanche, Rielly, Foligno
Outside of losing an important divisional matchup to the Buffalo Sabres, the Florida Panthers also suffered a loss to their roster. During the contest, the Panthers announced that Sam Bennett had left the game with an upper-body injury.
At this point, there’s no clear answer for how Bennett sustained the injury. Regardless, he joins a growing list of injured players in Florida as their quest for a third consecutive Stanley Cup Final continues to slip away. Bennett finished the game with a -1 rating in 5:11 of action.
If Bennett is unable to play in tomorrow’s game against the Boston Bruins, the Panthers will assuredly need to make a recall to their forward core. The Panthers were already without forwards Anton Lundell, Brad Marchand, and Tomas Nosek. Additionally, forwards Aleksander Barkov, Jonah Gadjovich, and defensemen Seth Jones and Dmitry Kulikov are all on the team’s injured reserve.
Additional injury updates:
- Despite returning defenseman Devon Toews in last night’s loss to the Detroit Red Wings, the Colorado Avalanche remain waiting for a pair of top-six forwards to return. According to Jesse Montano of Guerilla Sports, the Avalanche hope that Martin Nečas will return tomorrow. Additionally, although he’s expected to play tomorrow, captain Gabriel Landeskog is nearing a return and is poised to play with Team Sweden for the upcoming Olympics. The 33-year-old winger has not played since January 4th due to an upper-body injury.
- Before taking the ice against the Calgary Flames yesterday, The Athletic’s Joshua Kloke reported that the Toronto Maple Leafs won’t return defenseman Morgan Rielly to the lineup before the Olympic break. Rielly left Toronto’s recent win over the Vancouver Canucks due to an upper-body injury. Given that he’s not playing for Team Canada at the upcoming Winter Olympics, Rielly will likely return after the international event, but the Maple Leafs couldn’t specify a recovery timeline.
- The Minnesota Wild were without a middle-six forward last night against the Montreal Canadiens. Before the drop of the puck, the Wild announced that Marcus Foligno would miss the game because of illness. The 34-year-old forward had been playing better of late, scoring three goals and eight points in his last 15 games, including the first hat trick of his career a few weeks ago. He’s not expected to miss the Wild’s final contest before the Olympic break.
West Notes: Thomas, Catton, Necas, Blankenburg
There are no expectations that Robert Thomas will return to the St. Louis Blues before the upcoming Olympic break. The Blues announced that Thomas had minor leg surgery yesterday and would return after the Olympics.
Thomas has missed much of January, having last played on January 10th. So far in the 2025-26 season, the 26-year-old center has scored 11 goals and 33 points in 42 games, managing a -3 rating, while averaging 18:58 of ice time per game.
Although Thomas’s injury recovery won’t impact the Blues’ postseason outlook, it could have ramifications leading up to the trade deadline. While it was always unlikely, there was some speculation that St. Louis was entertaining trade offers on Thomas. Prospective buyers will likely shy away from the high price the Blues have set, given that Thomas would be only a few days removed from fully recovering by the deadline.
Additional notes from the Western Conference:
- The Seattle Kraken will be without one of their up-and-coming prospects through the upcoming Olympic break. Earlier today, the Kraken announced that Berkly Catton will miss Seattle’s next three games due to an upper-body injury. Catton, who missed several weeks in December due to a separate injury, has scored five goals and 11 points in 40 games throughout his rookie campaign.
- Despite the lopside afair, the Colorado Avalanche were without their second-highest scorer against the Detroit Red Wings this afternoon. Before the game, Corey Masisak of The Denver Post shared that Martin Nečas is considered day-to-day with a lower-body injury. Regardless, the Avalanche pulled away with the victory, and there’s no expectation that Nečas will be held out through the Olympic break before he suits up for Team Czechia.
- Tied with the New York Islanders at the time of writing, the Nashville Predators are without one of their most underrated defenseman tonight. The Predators announced that Nick Blankenburg would miss tonight’s contest due to illness. Already setting career-highs across the board, Blankenburg sits eighth on the team in scoring with six goals and 21 points in 43 games.
Avalanche Sign Martin Necas To Eight-Year Extension
Another big-ticket name is off next summer’s free agent board. The Avalanche have signed Martin Nečas to a max-term extension, the team announced. The deal is worth $92MM in total and carries an $11.5MM cap hit, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports. $60MM of that $92MM is signing bonus money, and the deal carries a no-movement clause from 2026-27 through 2032-33, Friedman adds. The eight-year contract carries Necas through the 2033-34 season.
After potential 2026 UFAs Connor McDavid, Kirill Kaprizov, Jack Eichel, and Kyle Connor all signed extensions over the past several weeks, Nečas and Artemi Panarin were left alone at the top of the class for next summer. Instead of waiting to see what Nečas might have been able to land on the open market for the first time in his career, he’s making a long-term commitment to Colorado.
As for the Avs, they didn’t have much of a choice but to keep grinding away until they got a deal done. Nečas became a top-line cornerstone and their de facto No. 2 forward behind Nathan MacKinnon when they initiated a series of blockbuster trades midway through last season. Colorado was unable to make tangible progress on an extension with star pending UFA Mikko Rantanen, so they traded him to the Hurricanes and received Nečas back as the centerpiece. Rantanen was similarly unable to come to terms on a deal with Carolina and was flipped to the Stars at the trade deadline, where he did end up signing an eight-year deal.
Leaving Nečas in lame duck status for much longer risked the same situation developing that torpedoed their relationship with Rantanen less than 12 months ago. It’s hard not to see the terms of the contract as a net positive for the Avs, who get Nečas locked in for $500,000 per season under what Rantanen ended up receiving from Dallas. They also keep their internal salary structure intact by keeping his cap hit well below MacKinnon’s $12.6MM mark, giving them more added flexibility when starting up extension talks with potential 2027 UFA Cale Makar next summer.
Aside from that drama, the Avs are evidently pleased with what Nečas has brought to the table in the last nine months. The 2017 No. 12 overall pick had flashes of top-line play in Carolina throughout his development, but never put a pair of back-to-back star-level seasons together. That looks to be changing now. Nečas crossed the point-per-game threshold for the first time in 2024-25, racking up 27 goals, 56 assists, and 83 points in 79 appearances between the Canes and Avs. He had 28 of those points in 30 games with Colorado. He’s off to a similarly hot start this season with seven goals and 13 points in 11 contests while averaging a career-high 21:15 per game.
In signing his deal, Nečas becomes the seventh Avalanche player signed through 2030 or longer. He joins MacKinnon, Valeri Nichushkin, Devon Toews, and Mackenzie Blackwood as the team’s core pieces locked in for that long, while depth forwards Parker Kelly and Logan O’Connor are also signed to lower-cost, long-term deals.
Now, the Avs hope Nečas’ emergence since the beginning of 2024-25 is sustainable for the rest of his prime. Through his first five full seasons in Carolina, Nečas only averaged 23 goals and 58 points per 82 games. Now, he ranks 25th in the league in points per game since October 2024 among those with at least 25 appearances. Possession play, previously an intermittent concern in Raleigh, has also seen improvement since his arrival in Denver. He posted a dominant 60.6 CF% at even strength for the Avs down the stretch last year and has continued humming along with a 57.6% mark with a 62.2 xGF% this year.
Nečas was finishing up a two-year, $13MM contract he signed with the Canes as an RFA in July 2024. Now, he falls just outside the top 10 highest cap hits for the 2026-27 season. Six of the 10 players ahead of him have signed their contracts in the last calendar year.
The extension doesn’t cripple the Avs’ salary cap picture for 2026-27, but it’s still uncomfortably tight. They have $16.125MM in projected space, assuming a $104MM cap, but nine roster spots are unaccounted for, per PuckPedia. That’s an average of just $1.79MM per spot. The good news – none of their remaining pending free agents currently make more than that figure. Their eight highest-paid forwards, their four highest-paid defensemen, and their highest-paid goaltender are all signed through at least next season, meaning that $1.79MM average to fill out their depth could end up being a feasible number to work with.
Image courtesy of Winslow Townson-Imagn Images.
Avalanche Want To Hold In-Season Extension Talks With Martin Necas
For some pending UFAs, the beginning of the regular season can be a stop-and-drop regarding extension negotiations. That doesn’t appear to be the case between the Avalanche and Martin Necas.
“Colorado has communicated clearly to the Necas camp that it wants to extend him at some point this season,” Pierre LeBrun writes for The Athletic, but those discussions “haven’t yet gotten into the nitty-gritty of exchanging offers and counteroffers.” The belief is they’re waiting to let Necas extend his sample size in Colorado into this regular season “before taking those discussions to the next level.”
Necas’ extension talks carry a different context than those of his peers for the 2026 UFA class. There’s arguably more pressure on the Avalanche to find a way to retain him than almost any other big-name free agent. He was the only high-end asset acquired when they dealt Mikko Rantanen to the Hurricanes in last January’s blockbuster deal – letting Necas walk will amount to them losing two top-line talents for almost nothing aside from depth center Jack Drury.
These talks also come at a time when Necas’ value is at an all-time high. The 2017 No. 12 overall pick has been prone to some significant season-to-season point swings in recent years, but he popped in a considerable way in 2024-25 by breaking the point-per-game threshold for the first time. He finished the year with a 27-56–83 scoring line in 79 appearances, closing out the year with 28 points in 30 games after arriving in Denver.
With that in mind, along with a quickly rising salary cap, Necas’ extension is projected to net him nearly $10MM per season on a seven-year deal, according to AFP Analytics. He, along with others like Adrian Kempe and Alex Tuch, is waiting for some of the A-list names like Connor McDavid and Kirill Kaprizov to sign deals and set the market for the 2026 class, LeBrun writes. With Kempe and Tuch also angling for eight-figure cap hits, Necas will as well. The Avs then run into the same problem they did with Rantanen – being hesitant to register such a large contract with franchise defenseman Cale Makar set to potentially double his $9MM cap hit when he becomes a free agent in 2027. Of course, that Rantanen deal was made before the league released official salary cap projections that were in significant excess of expectations.
Even for 2026-27 accounting, a $10MM cap hit for Necas could be something of a tight squeeze. Doing so would leave them with roughly $16MM in space to account for eight roster spots, according to PuckPedia. Outside of Necas, though, they don’t have any high-impact expiring names, so filling out those jobs with an average salary of $2MM might not be too much of an obstacle.
Snapshots: Necas, Maccelli, Blue Jackets Invites
The focal point of the Colorado Avalanche’s return package in the blockbuster trade that sent Mikko Rantanen to the Carolina Hurricanes was forward Martin Necas, and although he enjoyed a solid start to his tenure in Colorado, his situation is far from settled. The 26-year-old scored 28 points in 30 games in Denver, but his future with the club is cloudy due to the fact that he is set to hit unrestricted free agency after the 2025-26 season. The Denver Post’s Corey Masisiak called Necas’ contract situation “a tricky negotiation for both sides,” and provided some detail as to why.
First and foremost, Masisiak cited Minnesota Wild forward Kirill Kaprizov‘s contract situation as a factor that could hold up progress – Necas may not want to sign his deal until his camp, led by Eclipse Sports Management’s Michael Deutsch, gets to see what Kaprizov’s deal is valued at. From the Avalanche’s side of the equation, the team needs to find a way to figure out if they can fit Necas’ next contract onto their books, which currently feature Nathan MacKinnon at a $12.6MM cap hit and are set to feature Cale Makar‘s likely record-setting extension in two years’ time. Necas is an extremely talented hockey player and has proven to be a quality fit for the Avalanche, but retaining him, for the reasons Masisiak detailed, could prove challenging.
Some other notes from around the league:
- At the end of 2023-24, it looked as though Matias Maccelli was inching his way to star status as an NHL scorer. The Finnish winger had scored 57 points in his second full season in the NHL, but things went badly wrong in 2024-25. Maccelli’s offense cratered, and he found himself in-and-out of the Utah lineup en route to a final total of just 18 points. Now with the Toronto Maple Leafs thanks to an offseason trade, Maccelli is a candidate to have a real bounce-back year in 2025-26. He told The Hockey News’ Nick Barden today that his level of motivation is “probably the highest it has ever been,” and expressed some hope that he’ll get to play with and learn from some of the Leafs’ “top names.” Toronto has a major scoring void to fill after the departure of Mitch Marner to the Vegas Golden Knights, so Maccelli will have a massive opportunity to get his career back on the right track. If he can show chemistry with one of Toronto’s two star centers, he could quickly find himself back in the strong statistical company he once held.
- The Columbus Blue Jackets announced today, as part of their larger training camp roster announcement, that two of the club’s free agent invites to its now-concluded rookie camp have been extended an invite to full training camp. One if the invites is of 20-year-old Saginaw Spirit forward Nicholas Sima, who team reporter Jeff Svoboda referred to as a “standout” of the team’s prospect games. The other invite is of defender Marcus Kearsey, who captains the QMJHL’s Charlottetown Islanders. While neither player is a real candidate to win an NHL job (they’d need to sign an entry-level contract in order to do so, anyway) these invites give each player the opportunity to further impress Blue Jackets brass.
West Notes: Canucks, Necas, Bardakov
Ever since they traded J.T. Miller midseason, the Canucks have been on the lookout for help down the middle. However, they haven’t had any success doing so just yet. Speaking with Sportsnet’s Iain MacIntyre, GM Patrik Allvin acknowledged that he hasn’t given up looking for center help just yet and continues to keep an eye on the market:
We continue to talk to teams but there hasn’t been a whole lot available here leading up to this point. Obviously, it comes down to the cost of acquisition and, you know, where the fit is for (coach) Adam Foote and his style of how we want to play. That’s definitely something we continue to look at.
You’re right, the more depth you can have at centre, probably the stronger you are as a team. It’s an area where we’ve identified that if we’re going to make a trade. . . our preference to strengthen our lineup is a centre iceman.
As Allvin noted, there hasn’t been much in the way of available impact centers this offseason. Several free agents ultimately re-signed with their teams while the trade market hasn’t materialized either, especially with so many teams joining the Canucks in their pursuit of a middleman. As things stand, Filip Chytil projects to be Vancouver’s second center heading into training camp, a spot on the depth chart he hasn’t held too often in his career.
More from out West:
- While Martin Necas is eligible to sign a contract extension now and getting one done would eliminate the possibility of the same concerns they had last season with Mikko Rantanen, Evan Rawal of The Denver Gazette argues that it wouldn’t be in his best interest to do so just yet. Rantanen and Mitch Marner didn’t take top dollar on their respective deals to truly reset the market but that’s not expected to be the case with Minnesota’s Kirill Kaprizov. If Necas (and others) wait until Kaprizov establishes the new benchmark, that might allow him to get a bit more compared to what the number might be now. Necas is coming off a career year that saw him record 27 goals and 56 assists in 79 games between Carolina and Colorado.
- Still with the Avalanche, Corey Masisak of The Denver Post suggests that prospect winger Zakhar Bardakov could be one of the biggest wild cards heading into training camp later this month. The 24-year-old is in his first season in North America after signing his entry-level deal back in April. Bardakov had 17 goals and 18 assists in 53 games with SKA St. Petersburg in the KHL last season and GM Chris MacFarland has brought him up unprompted twice when discussing their roster. Colorado churned through many different bottom-six options last season and if Bardakov can come in and even hold down a regular spot on the fourth line right away, that would certainly help deepen their lineup.
Fallout From The Mikko Rantanen Trade
After one of the biggest in-season acquisitions since the New Jersey Devils acquired Ilya Kovalchuk for a massive haul in the 2009-10 season, more information has begun trickling out regarding Mikko Rantanen and the Carolina Hurricanes.
In an article in The Athletic (Subscription Required), Pierre LeBrun explains that only a few teams knew Rantanen was available. LeBrun indicates that Colorado’s first intention was to extend Mikko, but general manager Chris MacFarland had already called a few teams, saying they may call back about the Finnish sniper.
Extension talks between Rantanen and the Avalanche had increased over the last few weeks. However, the ‘Nathan MacKinnon-internal cap’ gave MacFarland the sense that Mikko wouldn’t sign an extension in the next five months. LeBrun believes Rantanen would have taken less money than Leon Draisaitl received from the Edmonton Oilers ($14MM) but wasn’t willing to make such a drastic cut that he made less than MacKinnon’s $12.6MM salary.
Unsurprisingly, Cory Lavalette from the North State Journal reports the Hurricanes have already had preliminary extension discussions with Rantanen’s agent. Given their history together on Team Finland, Rantanen is already familiar with Sebastian Aho, but he’ll want to get comfortable in Carolina before talks can progress.
As far as what that hypothetical extension may look like — Harman Dayal took a stab at that in a recent article on The Athletic (Subscription Required). Dayal argues that Rantanen’s fairest comparable is Boston Bruins’ forward David Pastrňák who was given 13.5% of the salary cap for the first year of his current contract.
Assuming the salary cap increases to the reported $97 million for next season, that would place Rantanen around the $13.1 million range. It’s already been made clear that Rantanen and his agent have other ideas, as he and the Avalanche likely could have worked out an agreeable salary should that have been the starting point.
Lastly, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman offered some insight regarding the main piece heading back to Colorado — Martin Nečas. Friedman asserts that the Avalanche were not the only team Nečas had been offered to. He believes Nečas was a part of recent trade discussions with the Vancouver Canucks for Elias Pettersson, but not for J.T. Miller.
The acquisition of Rantanen and Taylor Hall likely wraps up all of the headling-making trades for the Hurricanes. Still, despite the cap surgery required for the move, the Hurricanes could circle back on Miller if the Canucks are open to other players on Carolina’s roster.
Hurricanes Acquire Mikko Rantanen And Taylor Hall In Three-Team Swap
Blackhawks winger Taylor Hall was a late scratch from their game tonight against Tampa Bay. His absence wasn’t injury or illness-related, however, as he was traded to Carolina. He wasn’t the only one on the move, however, as the Hurricanes also picked up Mikko Rantanen as part of a three-team swap. The full deal, which has now been announced by all three teams, is as follows:
To Carolina: Taylor Hall, Mikko Rantanen (Chicago retains 50% of his contract), Nils Juntorp
To Chicago: CHI 3rd-round pick in 2025 (via Carolina)
To Colorado: Martin Necas, Jack Drury, 2025 second-round pick, 2026 fourth-round pick
Hall was widely speculated as a trade candidate going back to the start of the season. Now in the final year of his contract (one that carries a $6MM AAV), the veteran recently indicated that he’d be open to remaining with the Blackhawks but admitted that a trade was the likeliest outcome. That departure came a bit sooner than expected with the trade deadline still six weeks away.
The 33-year-old is in his second season with Chicago after being acquired in a cap-clearing move from Boston back in 2023. He was limited to just ten games in 2023-24 though due to a torn ACL but he has remained healthy so far this season. However, production has been difficult to come by this year as he has just nine goals and 15 assists in 46 games and was even made a healthy scratch earlier in the season.
In his prime, Hall was a legitimate top-line winger and even won the Hart Trophy back in 2015-16 while with New Jersey. He has been a 20-goal scorer seven times in his 15-year career, most recently coming in 2021-22 with Boston. While he’s no longer playing at that type of level, he should still be able to give Carolina a boost in their middle six. A potentially long playoff run could also help him rebuild some value heading into free agency this summer.
As for Rantanen, he’s also in the final year of his contract, a deal that carries a $9.25MM price tag, one that the Blackhawks will eat half of to help facilitate the swap, leaving them with just one remaining retention slot for this season. While Rantanen’s camp and the Avs were involved in recent extension discussions, the two sides were still well apart as of last week and clearly, they weren’t able to bridge those to either side’s satisfaction, resulting in Colorado deciding to move him now instead of run the risk of having him walk for nothing in free agency. It was believed that the Avalanche preferred to keep Rantanen’s price below Nathan MacKinnon‘s $12.6MM while Rantanen’s side was eyeing Leon Draisaitl‘s $14MM AAV (starting next season) as a benchmark. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman adds (Twitter link) that there is no extension in place with Carolina at this time.
Rantanen has consistently been one of the NHL’s top scorers in recent years. Only three players have more points than him since the start of the 2020-21 season, Connor McDavid, MacKinnon, and Draisaitl, certainly lofty company to be in. The 28-year-old has recorded more than 100 points in each of the last two years and is well on his way toward extending that streak. Rantanen has 25 goals and 39 assists in 49 games this season, good for sixth in NHL scoring. He’ll undoubtedly be a big boost to a Carolina attack that’s already among the best in the league, checking in at fourth overall in goals scored.
Necas, like Hall, had been in a lot of trade speculation, especially over the summer. At one point, it looked as if he’d be moved back at the draft amid reports that he had indicated that he’d welcome a change of scenery but that didn’t materialize. Instead, the two sides ultimately settled on a two-year, $13MM deal in July, a deal that gave him a fair-sized raise but also didn’t give Carolina any extra team control.
Two years ago, Necas had a breakout year, posting 28 goals and 43 assists in 82 games. Unfortunately for him and the Hurricanes, those numbers dropped last season to 24 and 29 respectively. However, things have been much better for the 26-year-old this season, as he has 16 goals and 39 assists in 49 games; his 55 points lead the team in scoring. But even with that, GM Eric Tulsky has decided that a significant shakeup to his forward group is required and these two moves certainly count as a significant shakeup.
Necas will likely slot in where Rantanen was on Colorado’s top line and a chance to play with MacKinnon could allow his individual production to flourish. That would certainly be an ideal situation to be in considering he’ll become extension-eligible on July 1st when he’ll have some more leverage only being a year away from hitting the UFA market.
Drury’s first full NHL campaign came last season and it was a good one as he had eight goals and 19 assists in 74 games while winning over 55% of his faceoffs. That helped earn him a two-year, $3.45MM contract over the summer. However, production has been harder to come by for him this season as the 24-year-old has just three goals and six assists through 39 games although his faceoff win percentage is up to 58.8%.
Colorado’s bottom six group has been an area of some concern for a couple of years now with the team churning through numerous players with varying degrees of minimal success. While Drury isn’t producing much more than many of those players, he’ll give the Avs some desired stability down the middle while his faceoff prowess will fit in well on a team that has a success rate at the dot of just 44.5%. They also get some club control over Drury who isn’t UFA-eligible until 2028.
Juntorp was a sixth-round pick by Chicago in 2022 and is included in the swap as the Blackhawks had to send something out beyond Hall to make the three-team element of the deal work. He has 20 points in 25 games with HC Dalen in the Hockey Ettan along with three appearances with Vasteras in the second-tier Allsvenskan.
In the end, Carolina has clearly signaled its intentions to go all-in this season and managed to upgrade its roster without touching any of its future assets. They’ll dip into LTIR for the time being to afford the swap. Colorado, meanwhile, ensures that they’ll get a top-line talent and some other pieces in exchange for Rantanen, giving them an extra year of club control along the way. They also free up a bit of cap space in the process which they’ll likely put to use in the coming weeks. As for Chicago, their return is certainly underwhelming as Hall is effectively given away in this deal while only receiving a third-round pick for eating half of Rantanen’s contract. However, they were able to clear the full freight of Hall’s contract, giving them one more retention slot to utilize before the deadline.
Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic first reported the three-team element and Chicago’s acquisition of the third-round pick. Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli was the first to report Colorado’s involvement in the deal. The Athletic’s Arthur Staple first reported that Necas was part of the swap. ESPN’s Emily Kaplan was first with Drury’s inclusion and the two picks going to Colorado.
Photos courtesy of Imagn Images.