{"id":585130,"date":"2026-04-06T04:24:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T04:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/585130\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T04:24:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T04:24:07","slug":"avalanche-still-big-winners-in-martin-necas-acquisition-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/585130\/","title":{"rendered":"Avalanche Still Big Winners In Martin Necas Acquisition \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/a>\u2018s trade ahead of the 2025 Trade Deadline. Facing a costly contract extension, Colorado opted to trade<\/a> Rantanen to the Carolina Hurricanes in late-January. The sudden deal wouldn\u2019t stick for Carolina \u2013 who flipped<\/a> Rantanen to Dallas. The fruits of the move were much more direct for Colorado, who took a homerun swing on Martin Necas<\/a>\u2018 ability to replace Rantanen\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s system has quickly made both of his previous heights look slim.<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 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<\/a>, Necas\u2019 new batterymate. MacKinnon\u2019s all-out energy and control over play has allowed Necas to focus on his strengths \u2013 but his improvements stand out apart from the top-tier support. Necas has looked explosive off the rush and added a goal-scorer\u2019s 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\u2019s schedule Necas likely won\u2019t reach the 105 points that Rantanen scored in his best year \u2013 but he nonetheless brings century-scoring capability to the lineup.<\/p>\n

The near-seamless replacement can make it easy to forget the rest of Colorado\u2019s return. The Avalanche also brought in feisty, depth forward Jack Drury<\/a> and draft capital from the Rantanen trade. They packaged one of those picks \u2013 a 2025 second-round pick \u2013 alongside William Zellers<\/a> and Casey Mittelstadt<\/a> to acquire<\/a> Charlie Coyle<\/a> and a pick from the Boston Bruins at the 2025 Trade Deadline. Colorado went one step further after the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs, trading<\/a> Coyle and Miles Wood<\/a> to the Columbus Blue Jackets for prospect Gavin Brindley<\/a>, a 2027 second-round pick, and a 2025 third-round pick used on defense prospect Francesco Dell\u2019Elce<\/a>. Drury and Brindley have already shored up Colorado\u2019s depth chart, while the additional capital boosted a bare Avalanche prospect room.<\/p>\n

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\u2019 career-year, his impact next to MacKinnon could help Colorado stick in Stanley Cup contention through the end of the 2020\u2019s. The Avalanche sit confidently on top of the league \u2013 six points ahead of the second-place Hurricanes \u2013 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"True NHL dynasties are often defined by more than their roster. It takes confident management decisions to stick…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585131,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,758,6850,44237,448,2368,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-585130","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-colorado-avalanche","11":"tag-martin-necas","12":"tag-mikko-rantanen","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-pro-hockey-rumors-originals","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}