There appears to be some roadblocks popping up in the Vancouver Canucks pursuit of Carolina Hurricanes winger Martin Necas.
It’s well known that the pending RFA is likely to be moved before next season. Necas and the Canucks were first connected a couple of weeks ago. The player seems to be a natural solution to the team’s biggest need, a dangerous scoring top-six winger.
However, it now seems as if the price might be getting too rich for the Canucks.
“They’re probably talking about some of your top prospects and the ask is big,” explained Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman on today’s episode of Donnie & Dhali. “I don’t think [Filip] Hronek is going to do this, I think they’re going to want some of your top prospects too, or one of your top prospects.”
The Canucks have two blue-chip prospects who every team around the league would covet. Jonathan Lekkerimäki and Tom Willander are both former first-round picks who have shown encouraging signs of development since being drafted.
Parting with either of those two players would be a tough pill to swallow for a Canucks team that doesn’t have a bevy of exciting prospects, as well as one that’s short on draft picks. While they’d be acquiring a top-six winger in Necas, they’d be depleting an already weak development pipeline.
The Canucks and Hurricanes already talked about a Necas trade earlier this year before the trade deadline. Those discussions reportedly involved star Elias Pettersson who had not yet signed his massive extension.
While the Canucks actual willingness to deal Pettersson at that time can be debated — the trade talks may have just been a move to pressure the player to sign an extension — Friedman reported today that his absence from the deal means the Hurricanes are far less interested.
“I’ve just been told it’s a harder deal for the Canucks to do now that the talks are not the same, whatever they were, before the deadline.”
If the Canucks can’t bring in Necas, who has scored 52 goals over the past two seasons, they’ll need to turn to the free-agent market to bring in a scoring winger. There are several options available, although few that match Necas’ combination of size, skill, and youth.