Martin Necas’ name has been in green every day this season on the Colorado Avalanche’s organizational depth chart at Family Sports Center.
Green means pending unrestricted free agent. Green means the clock is ticking.
Now, and every day moving forward for a very long time, Necas’ name will be in black.
The Avalanche signed Necas to an eight-year contract extension Thursday, worth $11.5 million per season, a league source confirmed to The Denver Post.
“Being able to get this done takes a big puzzle piece and puts it on the board,” Avs general manager Chris MacFarland said. “When we turned the color from potential UFA to locked in this morning, it felt very good.”
Necas, who will turn 27 years old in January, has seven goals and 13 points in 11 games for the Avs this season. He was the marquee asset in Colorado’s return for the Mikko Rantanen trade with the Carolina Hurricanes last January.
A Czechia native, Necas has played almost exclusively on the top line next to Nathan MacKinnon since arriving with the club. Necas finished last season with 27 goals and a career-high 83 points.
“I feel like coming into this season having the whole camp, being with the guys, I feel like a real player of the Colorado Avalanche,” Necas said. “I’ve seen the things we can do on the ice, and I was like, ‘Sign me up.’
“Itap nice to see the trust from them and the trust in me. Itap something new. Itap been really good this season. We have an unreal team here, great people around. I’m excited to play in front of Avs fans for way longer now.”
Rantanen was a pending UFA last season, and when the two sides couldn’t agree to a new contract, the Avs stunned the hockey world by sending their homegrown star to the Hurricanes for Necas, Jack Drury and two draft picks. Rantanen spent six weeks with the Hurricanes before being dealt again to the Dallas Stars, where he signed an eight-year, $96 million deal.
The $92 million committed to Necas makes it the second-largest contract in team history, trailing only MacKinnon’s eight-year, $100.8 million pact signed in September 2022.
“I think he’s an electric top-line winger at 26 turning 27 years old,” MacFarland said. “They’re hard to find. They’re hard to acquire. You’ve got to draft them, or it’s a steep price to get, whether it’s in free agency or trade. But I think the fit has been really good. His speed, his skill, his talent blends in really well here, but it would blend in anywhere, to be honest. He’s a very good hockey player. We’re lucky to have him.”
Necas has tried to make it clear that he is his own player, but he’ll always be tied to Rantanen in the ways players who are part of mega, league-altering deals are. There has been plenty written about what happened, or didn’t happen, in the negotiations between Rantanen’s representation and the Avs.
The finances of the sport changed just days after Rantanen was dealt, when the NHL announced huge projected spikes in the salary cap for this year, next year and the one after that. Had the Avs signed Rantanen to any deal, whether the average annual value started at $11 million or above, the 2025-26 season would have been a tight squeeze against the cap.
Now, the Avs have Necas signed through 2034. They have Brock Nelson slotted in as the No. 2 center through 2028, and every top-six forward, top-four defenseman and the starting goalie signed through at least next season.
Necas has been a seamless fit next to MacKinnon, and the two have made offensive magic together. How much Necas can continue to develop his all-around game, and how he performs in the postseason, will go a long way to determining how this deal works out for the Avs.
“We all know he’s a dynamic offensive player, very gifted in his ability to transport the puck from the D-zone to the O-zone and hang on to it, make plays or shoot to score,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “Thatap there on a regular basis. I’ve liked his commitment on the other side of it most nights. He’s learning how important it is to be a really good checker in the game, especially if he’s going to play up in the lineup like he does with us.”
This could be the last eight-year contract the Avs agree to. There is a seven-year maximum in the next collective bargaining agreement, so Sept. 15, 2026, is the last day for eight-year deals. Cale Makar, who is a pending UFA after the 2026-27 season, could sign for eight years if the deal gets done between July 1 and Sept. 15 next year.
Victor Olofsson, Brent Burns and Sam Malinski are still in green on the Avs’ big board. The biggest decisions for the following year start with Makar, but Samuel Girard and Artturi Lehkonen are also UFAs-to-be in July 2027.
But there’s no question that signing Necas to a long-term deal will have a huge impact on the near- and long-term future of the franchise. Colorado was fortunate to get a player of Necas’ caliber in return for Rantanen. The Avs may not have been so lucky if they had to make another trade of that ilk.
“Itap going to be super nice to finally settle in somewhere and have a long-term contract and just focus on winning and nothing else,” Necas said. “I’m super excited. Happy to call this place home now.”
