Éric Bélanger ready to give up to $7 million to Martin Necas

I summarized it here recently, but the Hurricanes will be one of the busiest teams this summer. They’ll have a number of issues to deal with, including Jesperi Kotkaniemi (buyout?), Jake Guentzel, but also Martin Necas.

Necas will soon become a restricted free agent, but his time in Carolina is drawing to a close. It all started with Elliotte Friedman saying that the club won’t pay the player the amount he wants, and his father adding fuel to the fire by saying that his son would like to be traded.

Will Kent Hughes have to stick his nose into the matter? Yes! Éric Bélanger agrees, and is prepared to give him up to seven million dollars. That’s what he said on BPM Sports yesterday.

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Bélanger was accompanied by Martin Lemay and Steve Bégin, who didn’t really seem to agree with their college’s claims.

Yet Necas has 71 points in 2022-2023 and is only 25 years old. He would fit in perfectly with what the Habs want to build, in his opinion. The Czech is a top-6 winger, already established and wouldn’t be a Kirby Dach or Alex Newhook project. No, he wouldn’t be an Artemi Panarin addition during a rebuild, but let’s just say acquiring him would speed up the process.

And if Kent Hughes managed to pick him up before the draft, he’d have found his forward and wouldn’t be “forced” to draft a forward with the fifth overall pick… even if that’s his preference.

Because we know that Cayden Lindstrom and Ivan Demidov can be interesting, but the chances of them both being drafted when the Habs take the stage are high.

Would the Montreal GM prefer to acquire them by trade or make a hostile offer? And if by trade, could the fifth overall pick be involved? Let’s not forget that last year, Montreal turned down good deals for its fifth overall pick.

Yaroslav Askarov was offered against the pick that eventually became David Reinbacher… Still, I think the difference between the Hurricanes’ winger and the fifth pick 2024 (depending on whether Lindstrom and Demidov are available), as well as Askarov and the 2023 pick, is greater.

To be seen.

In gusto

– A great atmosphere at the Worlds.

I covered three World Hockey Championships, a World Figure Skating Championship, three other hockey games and had legendary Czech hockey writer Pavel Barta feature me in a two-page speed in visits to Prague. So I kinda like the place. It might be my favourite city in the world. https://t.co/sUzA5yDpGC

– Terry Jones (@byterryjones) May 22, 2024