![There is no truth to Brady Tkachuk trade rumors, but is Martin Necas looking to leave Carolina? There is no truth to Brady Tkachuk trade rumors, but is Martin Necas looking to leave Carolina?](https://i1.wp.com/cdn.theathletic.com/app/uploads/2024/05/27123659/GettyImages-1996419676-scaled.jpg?w=1200&resize=1200,0&ssl=1)
Brady Tkachuk’s name suddenly popped up in trade conversations on social media.
To be clear, the Ottawa Senators have no intention of trading their star captain.
“Complete nonsense,” Steve Staios, the Senators’ president of hockey operations and general manager, said Monday when asked to comment on the rumors. “We are building this team around Brady. His leadership and unique skill set are rare.
“It has absolutely no validity.”
This is the second time I’ve asked Staios about this topic. In February, I asked him about Ryan Whitney’s tweet suggesting the Senators “maybe” move Tkachuk before the March 8 trade deadline.
“Oh yeah, that couldn’t be further from the truth,” Staios said with a smile on February 28. “I don’t follow social media. I get our communications people to alert me to things like that. Obviously there’s no truth to that. We’re building the team around Brady Tkachuk and the type of person, the type of player and the type What a leader he is. He means everything to the organization. And he brings it every night along with our core group of players.
“When I talk about bringing in veteran players, it’s really to support this young group and support Brady, Tim (Stützle) and the rest of the group. Claude Giroux has done a phenomenal job on this. But you can always use those guys…we’re the fifth-youngest team in the league, you know? Let’s say we’re three years younger than these teams competing for the Stanley Cup, but we’re three years younger across the board. That adds up to many years and many games played. Really, that’s all. But certainly, Brady is the leader we need in this room. “He is everything he is advertised to be and I am just trying to do the best I can to support him.”
The Senators have no intention of changing their captain, GM Steve Staios once again confirmed. (Kiyoshi Mio / USA Today)
And I think what’s probably happening here is that Whitney’s tweet has created a memory bank for some people, which isn’t surprising because the “Spittin’ Chiclets” podcast is a powerful voice in the game. Sometimes they also give news.
But when it comes to GM Senators, there is no gray area. The senators have no intention of engaging in that conversation with any team.
Necas, however…
On the other hand, I would give a little more weight to the rumors circulating about Martin Necas, who just won gold at the IIHF World Championship in his native Czech Republic.
Necas, 25, is a restricted free agent on July 1 and I absolutely believe he would like a change of scenery outside of Carolina. In fact, I think this has been the case for a while now.
Necas’ father recently revealed this with comments to Czech outlet Denik Sport complaining about his son’s usage with the Hurricanes and essentially saying his son wants a trade.
Now, I will also say that I’ve learned over the years that the parent doesn’t always necessarily speak for the child, but in this case, my feeling is that it’s probably pretty aligned.
“We’ll see what happens,” Necas told NHL.com’s Aaron Vickers after winning gold at the world championship on Sunday. “I don’t really care right now. What is going to happen is going to happen. My agent will take care of that. Let’s figure it out. “Now I am going to celebrate this medal and I am going to enjoy it for a while.”
However, as an RFA, there is a lot you can do, of course. But there appears to be very little chance of him signing a long-term deal with the Canes. The real question now is how will Carolina proceed?
What we know is that the Hurricanes included Necas in their February trade discussions with the Vancouver Canucks regarding Elias Pettersson before the Canucks ended up convincing Pettersson to sign a long-term extension. And I’ve reported before that Necas was part of the package Carolina offered Calgary in the summer of 2022 for Matthew Tkachuk.
Therefore, his name has been in trade talks significantly before. My understanding at this point is that the situation is like this: The Canes know that Necas is a star, a player capable of moving to the next level of what he has produced thus far in the NHL, and Carolina has a plan to expand his role the next season. However, sources also confirm that the Canes have received several calls from teams in the past week asking, given the father’s comments and, well, we know that Carolina is the type of organization that is not afraid to consider anything.
But there’s very little chance the Hurricanes, in win-now mode, will trade Necas for a futures package. If they get a star-caliber asset in a deal, I think Carolina would give it serious thought. But if not, I think the Canes are ready to keep him, even if the road is difficult, considering it seems like the player wants a change of scenery.
There are a lot of teams that could make sense for Necas. Nashville and Boston are immediately obvious in terms of their need to improve offensively. And we already know that the Canucks contemplated it in February. But it is easy to make the case for several clubs and, again, as noted above, many teams have asked over the past week.
The other layer is that Necas needs a new deal. How much does that cost? Most contenders have very little cap space, so that’s another part of it.
The real caveat, however, is that Carolina would want to get a star-caliber player back in any package. That’s where the adjustment becomes more complicated. That being said, all things being equal, my bet is that Necas will probably move on this summer.
Stay tuned, as they say…
(Top photo by Martín Necas: Jared C. Tilton//Keynote USA/Getty Images)
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