RALEIGH, N.C. — If Martin Necas can demonstrate the same resolve on the ice that he’s taken in his mental approach to the most important season of his career, he’s going to be fine.
There’s no hiding from the way Necas played last season, nor is he trying. There’s not much at stake: Just his future with the Carolina Hurricanes and the trajectory of the rest of his career.
“Especially after last season, I tried to think before every practice, before every game, that I want to be better,” Necas said. “I know I can be better. I want to prove on the ice to everyone. Obviously, I’ve got to take the next step for this team and that’s what I’m trying to do.”
The present and future of the 12th pick in the 2017 draft is one of the very few questions the Hurricanes have that will be answered in the next 82 games, not the 28 (or so) after that. That makes it, even on the opening night of this new season Wednesday against the Columbus Blue Jackets, perhaps the most pressing question they face — almost by default.
Playing on the right side with Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Andrei Svechnikov, Necas will be given every opportunity to demonstrate he’s the player he’s shown himself to be in flashes, bringing his game-changing speed and ability to slice through a defense on a regular basis, not in fits and starts.
And even if the ship has sailed on his future at center, he’s still a right shot who can take faceoffs, a commodity in short supply on the roster, which means the Hurricanes have even higher stakes riding on his success. His promising preseason was just that, promising. For the 23-year-old, it’s now or never.
“It’s always been there,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “That pace has been there since we’ve got him. It’s preseason, and he’s got to continue that when it counts for real, but it’s certainly better than not seeing it. He’s certainly been impactful in every game he’s played.”
In a moment when the Hurricanes are expected, barring unforeseen disaster, to safely make the playoffs, their season really begins then, months from now. That becomes the hard part for a team that believes it’s a contender, mustering the enthusiasm to grind through a regular season when you are most often the superior team (against teams like … Columbus).
There will be external influences on that, for sure — the return of the fabled State Fair road trip after Wednesday’s opener will demand a little extra determination to avoid getting off to a slow start, and the outdoor game at Carter-Finley Stadium will induce a welcome burst of enthusiasm at the depth of the doldrums of the season — but the Hurricanes clearly have sufficient talent and depth to assure their eventual participation in the postseason, six long months away.
The real questions will come then: On Frederik Andersen in net, if Max Pacioretty is the answer to their scoring issues against better teams and goaltenders — and whether he’ll be fully fit by then — whether Kotkaniemi is ready to handle playoff matchups centering a scoring line when there’s nowhere to hide and if Brent Burns is the key to unlocking a power play that has stalled in the playoffs in the past (it would be shocking if he isn’t).
Those are legitimate uncertainties, the variables upon which the ultimate success of this season hinges, and there’s no way to speed any of that up. Only time, and the crucible of playoff competition, will tell. Necas is different. He can’t wait that long.
His speed and skill are unquestioned, but he cost himself untold millions with a milquetoast regular season a year ago that bled seamlessly into an entirely anonymous postseason.
That led to a two-year bridge deal at $3 million per season, chump change for a player of his talent. He has only to look one draft pick later, where Nick Suzuki is making $7.875 million on an eight-year deal. Suzuki has clearly turned out to be the better player, the legit center Necas was drafted to be, but Necas shouldn’t be so far behind — and wouldn’t be, if he’d cashed in with a big year last season. The Hurricanes listened for interest in Necas over the summer but weren’t explicitly shopping him, and it would have taken a significant offer to pry him loose because they still believe in his talent.
“One hundred percent,” Hurricanes general manager Don Waddell said. “If there wasn’t (belief) we could have qualified him at $950,000 and if he doesn’t take it let him sit there. But he’s more valuable than that.”
You could say now he has two years to prove himself, but if Necas doesn’t take a major step forward he’ll be proving himself somewhere else next fall — and the Hurricanes need him to do it immediately.
They need him to be the player they believe he can be, that he has shown he can be at times, and start down a path of performance that could even lead him back to center — he said after last season that’s where he wants to be, but wasn’t given that opportunity in training camp — but at worst gives the Hurricanes a top-six scoring winger with uncommon unpredictability.
If that happens, that $3 million next season will be a stone-cold bargain, and the Hurricanes will be moving salaries to make room for Necas instead of the other way around. As of this date, heading into this season, everything’s on the table. They know it. Necas knows it. Everyone knows it.
“It’s always confidence,” Necas said. “When I have confidence, not just confidence, but when I’m playing good, I’ve got to play every shift the same way. You see me on the puck every time, every shift. That’s when I play the best. I know I can do it. I’ve just got to get on that level where I can do it consistently every game.”
In many ways, the Necas situation epitomizes this specific stage of the franchise’s progress. The Hurricanes have advanced past the second round of the playoffs once in the past four years. What was good enough once isn’t good enough anymore. Those who can will continue to push things along. Those who can’t will be left behind.
There aren’t many aspects of the Hurricanes that are as uncertain, if any. The Hurricanes are waiting for the spring. Necas can’t wait. From Game 1 to Game 82, he has no time to wait.
