This piece will be another in my series of player profiles, where I’ll give some thoughts on the performance of a member of the Carolina Hurricanes this season. This article will focus on Martin Necas.
This was a really solid rookie year for Necas. He was still prone to some mistakes and especially early on in the year, he made some poor decisions with the puck that turned into bad giveaways. But as expected, he adjusted quite well and got more comfortable as the year went on. He’s yet another great young piece the Hurricanes have up front who can help the team reach new levels of success in the coming years.
Though he was just seventh in ice time among Hurricanes forwards, you have to imagine his role will be larger next season, similar to how Andrei Svechnikov got a larger role this year. Necas finished the year third amongst Hurricanes forwards in goals and fourth in points and was on pace to hit the 20-goal mark and finish with about 46 points. I will point out though that his shooting percentage was 18.2 per cent this year and while he may have a great shot, that’s a high shooting percentage to maintain. He was trusted to play in overtime as well, where he ranked fifth among forwards in ice time.
For next year, I’d expect him to be playing on the second line with Vincent Trocheck. Between the two of them, they should be able to add quality secondary scoring, likely alongside either Ryan Dzingel, Warren Foegele or Nino Niederreiter. He’ll likely get more opportunities on the power play as well.
I don’t know that I’d expect a Svechnikov-like jump in production next year but with an increased role, I wouldn’t be shocked to see Necas in the 25-goal range with around 55-60 points by the time the season’s wrapped up. This was certainly a really solid season for Necas and it seems pretty certain that he’s going to be a key piece of Carolina’s top-six up front for a long time.
Here's today's poll question (results and discussion for all polls each week will be posted in an article every Saturday).
How many points do you expect from Martin Necas next season?
Carolina Hurricanes Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»