Hurricanes place Martin Necas in COVID protocol

After wowing the crowd with an impressive goal on his birthday this weekend, Martin Necas will have to enter isolation. The Carolina Hurricanes forward has been placed in the league’s COVID protocol, just 40 minutes after the team released a video celebrating his 100th NHL point.

Necas, 23, has registered those 100 points in just 158 career games, including 21 in 33 this season. Like most of the Hurricanes these days, strong possession numbers have resulted in good offensive results for the young forward, despite seeing limited time on the power play as part of the second unit.

Luckily, the Hurricanes play only twice this week. Games Tuesday and Friday are likely out of the question for Necas if he tested positive for coronavirus, but there would be a chance he’s eligible to return on Saturday. Even if it is three games he misses, the Hurricanes are a strong enough group that they have in-house replacements for his minutes.

Team reporter Walt Ruff tweets that Nino Niederreiter has moved into Necas’ spot on the second line at practice Monday, with Derek Stepan jumping in on the fourth line. Jaccob Slavin, who was in the protocol the last few days, has joined the group.