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What is Martin Necas’ future in Colorado as his market value grows?

Kyle Morton
Oct 19, 2025, 12:00 EDTUpdated: Oct 17, 2025, 13:23 EDT
Colorado Avalanche center Martin Necas (88) celebrates his goal against the Calgary Flames during the third period at Scotiabank Saddledome
Credit: Sergei Belski-Imagn Images

The Colorado Avalanche sent shockwaves through the hockey world last year when they sent Mikko Rantanen to the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for a package centered around Martin Necas.

Rantanen ultimately ended up with the Dallas Stars and was instrumental in eliminating the Avalanche from the postseason, making the contract negotiation disparities that drove them to trade the superstar in the first place seem trivial in hindsight.

Necas has fit like a glove in Colorado’s top six and on their power play unit, with his speed, skill and creativity allowing him to keep pace with Nathan MacKinnon while producing. So far this year, the former Cane has nine points in five games as the Avs are off to a 4-0-1 start.

But Necas is in a contract year just like Rantanen was last year, and with big name forwards dropping like flies from the July 1, 2026 free agent market, Necas’ market value is only going up as he moves closer to being the best forward set to be available when unrestricted free agency begins.

On Friday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton were joined by Jesse Montano of Guerilla Sports to discuss the team’s chances of retaining Necas and avoiding losing the primary return of Rantanen for nothing.

Tyler Yaremchuk: We’ve obviously spent a lot of time early in the season talking about some of these free agents who are going off the board, and Martin Necas, as every guy starts to sign, he just moves higher and higher up that UFA list. What’s your read on that situation? I’m sure it’s a good fit in Colorado and he’d love to win there, but there’s a world where he’s the number one UFA on the market July 1.

Jesse Montano: You’re 100% right. To start this season he and Nathan MacKinnon have been electric to watch… we saw a glimpse of it last year. It was good, it worked well, but Necas just looks like he’s on another level right now. What I had heard as of a couple weeks ago is that both sides were talking. It was moving forward, that they were feeling good. I haven’t heard anything that’s changed… Chris MacFarland might want to get that contract signed sooner rather than later because right now it looks like the price tag on that might be going up. It’s a good fit; I don’t think the Avs want a repeat of what happened last year with Mikko Rantanen.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…

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