{"id":476263,"date":"2025-10-18T17:30:37","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T21:30:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=476263"},"modified":"2025-10-18T17:30:37","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T21:30:37","slug":"nhl-rumours-next-deal-for-colorado-avalanche-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/10\/18\/nhl-rumours-next-deal-for-colorado-avalanche-forward\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL Rumours: Next Deal for Colorado Avalanche Forward"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s time for another round of NHL rumours. We&#8217;re nearly two weeks into the season, but teams are already looking ahead to next season. We&#8217;ve seen several key players who were pending unrestricted free agents already sign massive contracts. However, there are still many players who could command a substantial amount of money if they reach the open market.<\/p>\n<p>One of these possible free agents is a key forward on the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/10\/09\/nhl-predictions-utah-mammoth-colorado-avalanche\/\" target=\"_self\">Colorado Avalanche<\/a>. This edition of NHL rumours deals with what the next deal could look like for that player.<\/p>\n<p>All NHL rumours come from the original source and are subject to change.<\/p>\n<h2>NHL Rumours<\/h2>\n<h3>What Deal Could a Colorado Avalanche Forward Command<\/h3>\n<p><em>Rumour: We take a look at recent rumours surrounding pending UFA forward <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/n\/necasma01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-10-18_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Martin Necas<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Analysis:<\/em> Let&#8217;s start things off with a recent edition of<a  href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/nhl\/article\/friday-four-will-necas-price-himself-out-of-colorado\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> <em>the Friday Four<\/em><\/a> with Sportsnet&#8217;s Michael Amato. He delves into if Necas may price himself out of Denver. Many of the prime free agents have already been signed. This means that Necas could a sough-after commodity if he gets to the open market.<\/p>\n<p>Colorado&#8217;s dynamic forward already has nine points in five games so far this season. His hot start is only driving up his projected contract value for every team interested in him.<\/p>\n<p>The Avalanche have long memories when it comes to trying to sign a high-flying forward that could be heading into free agent. Colorado fans are having flashbacks to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/r\/rantami01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-10-18_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mikko Rantanen<\/a>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/01\/24\/report-colorado-avalanche-including-former-first-round-picks-involved-in-major-trade\/\" target=\"_self\">situation<\/a>. Avalanche General Manager Chris MacFarland pulled the trigger on a massive trade with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/09\/07\/carolina-hurricanes-bring-in-veteran-forward-on-pto\/\" target=\"_self\">Carolina Hurricanes<\/a> to salvage something. One wonders is something like that could happen again.<\/p>\n<p>The Avs seem to have a salary hierarchy where <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/mackina01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-10-18_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nathan MacKinnon<\/a> is the highest-paid at $12.6 million per season. Colorado likely wants to slot Necas under MacKinnon&#8217;s deal. However, there one other player that Colorado wants to take into account with their next deal.<\/p>\n<h4>What It Means<\/h4>\n<p>Necas&#8217; next deal is a big priority. However, MacFarland has to find money to take care of two-time <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/06\/11\/colorado-avalanche-defenceman-cale-makar-wins-norris-trophy-again\/\" target=\"_self\">Norris Trophy<\/a> winner <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/makarca01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-10-18_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cale Makar<\/a>. The<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/09\/15\/defenceman-cale-makars-2025-26-point-projection-colorado-avalanche-nhl-betting-fantasy\/\" target=\"_self\"> All-World defender<\/a> is making $9 million for this season and the next one. Makar is eligible to sign a contract extension on July 1, and getting a deal done will likely be the main item on the agenda.<\/p>\n<p>Necas currently makes $6 million in the final year of his contract. Pierre LeBrun of <em>The Athletic<\/em> said that Necas&#8217; camp<a  href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6658064\/2025\/09\/25\/kempe-tuch-necas-nhl-rumblings\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> is letting the season start<\/a> before letting talks get further down the road. This may seem like bad news for Colorado fans. However, LeBrun does offer some good news for Avalanche fans.<\/p>\n<p>He feels that Necas and Colorado will get a deal done, but we could see a big price-tag attached to the Czech forward. LeBrun said that general managers will have to adjust to the rising salary cap. The insider things that a deal for Necas will land between $10 million to $12 million per season.<\/p>\n<p>Getting the Necas deal done will allow the Avalanche to figure out their next move. Figuring out this contract is a vital puzzle piece in making sure they keep Makar long-term.<\/p>\n<p><em>Main photo by: Russell LaBounty-Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s time for another round of NHL rumours. We&#8217;re nearly two weeks into the season, but teams are already looking ahead to next season. We&#8217;ve seen several key players who were pending unrestricted free agents already sign massive contracts. However, there are still many players who could command a substantial amount of money if they [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2352,"featured_media":476273,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4321,28,4547,34,4548],"tags":[1515,7080,7153,944],"class_list":["post-476263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rumours","category-avalanche","category-hockey","category-news","category-nhl","tag-cale-makar","tag-chris-macfarland","tag-colorado-avalanche-rumours","tag-martin-necas"],"modified_by":"Dan Mount, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2352"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476263"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":476274,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476263\/revisions\/476274"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}