The Colorado Avalanche acquired forward Martin Necas in a trade with the Carolina Hurricanes last season in the same deal that sent Mikko Rantanen the other way, who eventually ended up with the Dallas Stars. That move shook Avalanche nation to its core, as Rantanen was loved by every Avs fan.
Now, the two players have each received a massive contract extension, tying them to their new team for another eight seasons. Necas has just signed a deal worth $92 million, an average annual value of $11.5 million. That figure comes up short of Rantanen’s average of $12 million a year ($96 million throughout the life of the deal).
Some people questioned the move to move Rantanen instead of extending him, which was a fair debate at the time.
However, Necas has helped Avalanche fans move on from the guy known as “The Moose.” Don’t get me wrong—There has to be some Avs fans who will always love Rantanen, but now that he’s on a rival team, that love has fallen off even if just slightly. It helped that, initially, Rantanen was out in Carolina and struggled a great amount. At that point, it made general manager Chris MacFarland look like a genius.
Then, Necas played 30 games for the Avalanche last season after playing 49 for the Hurricanes prior to the trade. He put up respectable numbers for a guy just getting into the system, with 11 goals and 17 assists and averaging 20:30 of ice time in his new role—2:25 more than he was playing in Carolina in 2024-25.
Necas is also on the Avs’ first power play unit and has scored two goals (second on the team) and recorded four assists on the unit. While the power play has struggled early on this season in its new scheme, the hope and expectation is that Necas will be a big contributor on it in the very near future, along with Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, Valeri Nichushkin, and Victor Olofsson, though we have seen a bit of change on the power play unit in terms of personnel. We’ll see what ends up happening there in the future, but Necas has been huge.
In the offseason, a rumour came out about Necas being unhappy with his role in the organization. That was (eventually) shot down by Necas’ camp. Once the season began, the 26 year old had something to prove to doubters who believed they could get away with that rumour. He has been solid so far this year, so I think that he may have been driven by outside noise.
Rantanen has four goals and eight assists through 10 games this season—very respectable numbers. Both he and Necas will be linked together because of where each player ended up, and it should result in a competitive rivalry for years to come. The only thing that the players can do now is move forward with their team and help try to bring the Stanley Cup back to their city. That’s the ultimate goal.