The LA Kings have made one significant move already in their offseason, dealing Pierre-Luc Dubois to Washington for Darcy Kuemper. While Dubois’ lone season in Los Angeles was a disappointment, the fact is he was brought in to be an impact forward. With him out the door, the Kings still need to find what he was supposed to bring: an impact forward.
Winger Martin Necas‘ days in Carolina appear to be coming to an end with the Hurricanes welcoming offers for the 25-year-old. A Restricted Free Agent (RFA), Necas will also need a new contract.
So, why Necas? For starters, one thing the LA Kings are really lacking is a right-shot forward in their lineup. Rookie Alex Laferriere was really the only one who provided much of an impact while Trevor Lewis did his thing on the fourth line. While there’s hope for Akil Thomas in the 2024-25 season, it’d be a lot to ask for the oft-injured youngster to provide what LA needs at the top of the lineup.
For his career, the bulk of which began in the 2019-20 season, the 6’2″ Necas has been a modest point producer (0.67 points per game in his 362 game career) but did spike 28 goals and 71 points in the 2022-23 season. It’s much more than his production, though. According to All Three Zones tracking, which spans from the 2020-21 season through 2023-24, it’s fairly clear to see his impacts:
In case you weren’t sure, blue is good. And Necas is, indeed, very good.
LA Kings fans may be happy that Dubois is gone, but what they did lose was their most efficient forward at entering the offensive zone with possession and was among the best at creating scoring chances. Necas fills both of those voids comfortably (via All Three Zones).
The Czechia native didn’t have quite as good a season in 23-24 (24 goals, 53 points in 77 games) as he did in 22-23 (28 goals, 71 points in 82 games), but his underlying impacts were still quite strong.
Necas has been one of the more creative players on one of the best possession teams in the league. Carolina has always been a quantity-over-quality team, but Necas has been able to find his way to the quality areas to create scoring chances either for himself or for his teammates.
What I like about Necas is he’s a bigger body who attacks often through the middle of the ice. Here’s a little bit of what he is capable of:
One area where Necas hasn’t excelled is on the power play. Though in Carolina, he wasn’t a main option with the likes of Sebastián Aho, Andrei Svechnikov and Brent Burns. In Los Angeles, he could play a much bigger role.
If he’s this good, why would one of the smarter teams in the league want to trade him? Well, they may not want to, but there’s been reporting that he wants out. As The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun reported, Necas’ name was involved in trade discussions with Vancouver (for Elias Pettersson), Calgary (for Matthew Tkachuk) and Boston (for Linus Ullmark). Acquiring Necas isn’t going to come cheap.
Los Angeles does not have that caliber of player to offer. But this offseason is a different situation for the Hurricanes who now have a player who apparently doesn’t want to be there and hasn’t committed to signing long term. The kicker is Carolina is a win-now team. A package of futures does them no good. For LA, you’d have to think someone like Trevor Moore and/or Jordan Spence would have to be involved in the deal to start with. While I’ve been steadfast in not trading Spence, you could talk me into a Necas deal pretty easily.
In addition to the trade, Necas needs a contract. If signing with a team other than Carolina, Evolving Hockey projects a seven-year deal at $7.515M AAV. I’d have no problem paying this for the player and after saving some money offloading Dubois and at least one noteworthy contract likely going the other way, I think LA could make this work.
Lastly, there’s the annual offer sheet buzz:
According to Cap Friendly, here’s the compensation breakdown depending on the AAV signed in the offer:
| ANNUAL AVERAGE (AAV) VALUE | COMPENSATION |
| $4,580,918 – $6,871,374 | 1 First Round Pick |
| 1 Third Round Pick | |
| $6,871,375 – $9,161,834 | 1 First Round Pick |
| 1 Second Round Pick | |
| 1 Third Round Pick |
With LA holding all of those picks in 2025, they would meet the requirements.
At the end of the day, the LA Kings are going to need an impact forward. If Quinton Byfield is moving back to the center position, it will need to be a winger. Martin Necas checks a lot of boxes for a team desperate for a high-end forward.
Main Photo Credit: Josh Lavallee, NHLI via Getty Images
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