Devils coach Sheldon Keefe remembers Necas when he coached against him in the 2019 Calder Cup Playoffs in the American Hockey League, Necas with the Charlotte Checkers and Keefe with the Toronto Marlies.
“They ended up winning the Calder Cup that year and he was just a great, great young player,” Keefe said. “He showed incredible skills. I have always coached very alertly against him and I certainly am now.”
Ask about Necas’ best attribute and everyone who spoke for this story says it’s his skating ability.
“He’s so fast and so creative with the puck,” Pesce said.
Noesen said: “Elite. The way he cuts, how dynamic he is, you can rank him among the best skaters in the League.”
Brind’Amour said Necas would not always use the most dynamic element of his game properly. There were times when he was too east-west. There were times when he didn’t pick up the pace during the rush.
“Sometimes in the past it almost hurt our transition game because he didn’t want to go, he wanted to bring it back and build it,” Brind’Amour said.
With Necas using his skating to his advantage, Keefe said the Hurricanes have a new dimension: an elite rush game to go with their signature forecheck. It helped them to a 14-5-1 record heading into their home game against the Dallas Stars at the Lenovo Center on Monday (7 p.m. ET; FDSNSO, Victory+).
“He’s an incredible player who gets through the neutral zone, plays with the puck and plays with urgency,” Keefe said. “I think some of Carolina’s game has changed a little bit in that sense and it suits him more than anything.”
Especially if Necas skates with the confidence he has now.
Brind’Amour calls him Carolina’s “home run hitter.”
“He is a unique player that we have,” the coach said. “I don’t want to say out of the box, but we’re giving him more freedom to do those things because he’s capable of doing that.”
Necas, however, does not let the success go to his head.
Longtime Hurricanes broadcaster Tripp Tracy said he spoke with Necas on Wednesday’s quick flight from Philadelphia to Newark after the forward ended a 13-game point streak. Tracy said Necas, straight-faced, unfazed, told him, “Let’s start a new one.”
“I just try to take it one game at a time and not think about it so much,” Necas said. “This is something that I enjoy, that I love, and when I play like that, the game is a lot of fun. I just play in the moment.”
A moment he hoped would eventually happen to him. A moment that everyone around him knew was inevitable.
“It has always been (Sebastian) Aho, the main player,” Palat said. “Aho is still very good, but now their engine is ‘Nechy.’ Good for him. He has all the confidence in the world.”