Why one Hurricanes reunion makes little sense, even after nostalgia-filled night
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Necas returned to Raleigh, assisted and inspired fans but Canes lost 5-3.
- Canes face key gaps: injuries on defense and lack of true top-6 superstar center.
- Necas' Colorado role boosts his stats but system fit and playoffs raise doubts.
After a Carolina Hurricanes home playoff game – one during which Martin Necas had been particularly effective – a precocious fan or two playfully rearranged the large, but oddly light letters that spelled #-C-A-N-E-S near one of the entrances to spell #-N-E-C-A-S.
The perfect anagram for the perfect moment.
The Hurricanes’ arena bears different lettering since the last time Necas regularly called the rink home, though “Lenovo Center” doesn’t rearrange quite as nicely. (“Color vente” is as close as I could get; open to suggestions.)
Saturday, Necas returned to Raleigh for the first time as a player in the visitors’ locker room, along with fellow former Hurricanes Brent Burns and Jack Drury.
At the first media timeout, the Canes recognized all three players with well-wishes on the display board.
On the ice, Drury had a goal— his seventh — Necas had an assist— his 33rd — and Burns was his normal, steady self on the blue line with a plus-one in 18:03 played as the Avalanche rallied to post four goals in the third period to stun the Canes, 5-3.
The loss is Carolina’s fourth in a row, and the Canes held a two-goal lead or more in all four.
Sebastian Aho scored the 300th goal of his NHL career in the first period, Nikolaj Ehlers added his 10th of the season on a power play and Andrei Svechnikov his 12th in the second period as the Hurricanes built a 3-1 lead. Frederik Andersen was stellar through two periods, stopping 23 pucks through 40 minutes, but a pair of Brock Nelson power play goals sandwiched around Drury’s goal turned that 3-1 Canes advantage into a 4-3 Colorado lead. The Avs added an empty-netter for good measure.
Necas’ return Saturday — and the statistical success he’s had in Colorado since his trade there last season — creates the question: Is a player like Necas among the few missing pieces (along with goalie, though that’s been discussed enough) the Canes now need to finally get over the hump?
And if you believe that he is, another question certainly surfaces: Why wasn’t Necas that player two years ago?
The first answer is: “No,” regardless of your level of revisionist history/nostalgia.
But, if you do believe the first answer to be “yes,” the answer to the second question is: “He’s no different now than he was then.”
What the Hurricanes need … beyond the crease
To address the first part of the double-barrelled question, we first need to look at what the Canes honestly need outside of the crease.
The first and easiest answer: Health, above all else.
The Hurricanes have had a hard time truly gauging what they need this season because they haven’t had a single game this year during which their optimal lineup has been 100% ready to go.
On defense, Jaccob Slavin has played in all of five games this season. K’Andre Miller has missed considerable time, Shayne Gostibehere recently spent some time on the bench, though he returned Saturday. And a smattering of young defenders have paraded through the lineup that also regularly features rookie Alexander Nikishin.
At forward, Seth Jarvis is still out of the lineup after a scary collision with the goalpost, and various other forwards have rotated in and out of the lineup with injuries, though not to the degree of the defenders.
When healthy, with the recent addition of Noah Philp as a depth center, the Canes’ forward group is solid, but it also leaves the most room for improvement.
That brings up the second “need”: A top-6 forward, and ideally, a center. Philp helps for depth, and the Canes have a stable of “middle six” forwards. But they are missing that bona fide superstar. They want Sebastian Aho to be that player. They want Andrei Svechnikov to be that player. They want Nik Ehlers to be that player.
And maybe in the next five years, they will be. But right now? They’re all good-to-great. They all have their moments. But safe to say, none will challenge for the NHL scoring title, nor force gameplan changes from opposing coaches.
Think MacKinnon. McDavid. Matthews. Kucherov. Celebrini. Ahem … Rantanen.
Ahem, again … Necas, who sits seventh in the NHL in points at the rough halfway mark of the season, on a team with just two regulation losses in 39 games.
Why Necas (or someone like him) isn’t the answer
In 411 games for the Hurricanes, Necas, the Canes’ 2017 first-round draft pick, had plenty of effective moments in his nearly eight-year run with the franchise. By his fourth season, he was performing at nearly a point per game. His best full season with the Canes came in 2022-23, a season in which he posted 71 points while playing all 82 regular-season games.
That season, though, in the playoffs, he disappeared, posting just seven points in 15 games. The following regular season, his production dipped to 53 points in 77 regular-season games, and he was a minus-9 on a team that was 52-23-7 and plus-63 overall.
Still, the Canes extended him that summer, signing the Czech forward to a prove-it-style, team-friendly two-year deal at $6.5 million per season.
Late last season, they dealt him to the Colorado Avalanche, in a transaction that temporarily added Rantanen to the Canes’ roster.
Rantanen was then very publicly dealt to Dallas for, among other pieces, Logan Stankoven.
Necas flourished in the run-and-gun Colorado system. He put up 28 points in 30 games with his new mates. But he again flatlined in the postseason, contributing just one goal and five points in the Avs’ premature playoff exit.
This season, Necas has 52 points in 40 games after an assist Saturday, and is plus-39 (!!). Only nine of his points are on the power play, as well, which shows improvement in his 5-on-5 play.
But he’s also doing this alongside Nathan MacKinnon, who has 74 points and is tied for first in the NHL scoring race, on a team that, we’ll say it again, has lost only two games in regulation this season.
And he’s still good for a head-scratching turnover or three every game.
And let’s not forget, Necas — well, his agent, anyway — was vocal about his fit in the Canes’ system.
On a night with three former Carolina skaters in uniform on the opposing bench, on a night when both teams wore uniforms straight out of the 1980s, it was romantic to think about a reunion, or a similar relationship with a player in Necas’ mold.
But it’s not a practical solution.
This story was originally published January 3, 2026 at 9:56 PM with the headline "Why one Hurricanes reunion makes little sense, even after nostalgia-filled night."
