Insider: Offer Sheet Could Be Coming For Hurricanes RFA Martin Necas

While nearly every team in the NHL has reached out to the Carolina Hurricanes on restricted free agent Martin Necas, the list of "intriguing possibilities" for a trade is apparently down to a handful of teams.

But according to insider Pierre LeBrun, the asking price in any trade for the young and rising forward is still set pretty high, and he says if no deal is consummated, we could see something rare happen when free agency gets underway, in the form of an offer sheet.

Offer sheets are pretty rare but one thing I’ve heard a bit this week on the Martin Necas front is a few teams wondering if that’s a plausible avenue if the asking price in trade talks with Carolina remains too high. Probably a long shot play, but something to file away
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) June 20, 2024

LeBrun says he's heard that a few teams are "wondering if it's plausible" to make an offer sheet for Necas. Those are few and far between in the NHL, and there's good reason—there is some costly compensation involved.

With an expected salary for Necas (per AFP Analytics) of somewhere in the range of close to $7 million or above, the signing team in an offer sheet scenario would have to compensate the Hurricanes with three draft picks—a 1st, 2nd, and a 3rd-rounder. At that hefty cost, there are thought to be 13 teams that have the draft assets to consider it:

Per CapFriendly, these are the teams with the draft picks to pull off the most plausible Necas offer sheet (1st, 2nd, 3rd for $6.9M-$9.1M) pic.twitter.com/3yvBcMBuWg
— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) June 20, 2024

Buffalo Sabres
Chicago Blackhawks
Detroit Red Wings
LA Kings
Minnesota Wild
Montreal Canadiens
Nashville Predators
NY Islanders
Philadelphia Flyers
Seattle Kraken
St. Louis Blues
Utah Hockey Club
Washington Capitals

Of course, there's always a possibility that this "report" was planted by the Necas camp in order to get interested teams to step up their trade offers, lest they lose him to another suitor's offer sheet once July 1st rolls around.

Necas, the former 12th overall pick (2017 Draft), saw his usage and production take a dip this past season, to 24 goals and 53 points (from 28 and 71), and he has asked out of Raleigh.