That's the issue with Necas though. Is he on the verge of hitting new heights or is it what you see is what you get? With Dach, he was dealing with injuries and a badly managed Hawks team. Potential for Dach to hit new heights was higher than Necas today.
Disagree here, there's much more of a proven record with Necas today, than there was with Dach when the Habs acquired him. That will be reflected in the contract Necas will received compared to the one that Dach eventually received.
Necas was fighting for icetime on a team with Seth Jarvis, T. Teravainen, Svechnikov and then Guentzel. He got pushed down the depth chart bit but still ended up with 53pts.
It's impossible for any forward on this team to achieve 50pts without copious amounts of icetime.
I'm interested in Necas but not desperate. Many are considering him a sure shot top 6F moving forward but I see middle 6F but at the top end of that waive. Some fans going to nit pick and laugh but I don't have definitive top 6 vs bottom 6 lines. So many players overlap it and I have Newhook as one of them. Necas to me is like Newhook but maybe slightly better. Necas is just putting up good numbers on a contender.
There's always a risk here, just like there was a risk with Dach and Newhook. Are these guys who are just underutilized and would blossom on a team with more responsibilities? I think the answer was a resounding yes for Dach, a bit less so for Newhook but overall he was pretty good.
The question/risk is less so with Necas because he's already proven, more than once, to be a more than capable top 6 player and his contract is going to be reflective of a top 6 winger.
If the cost to acquire is manageable (parts we can spare like the Dach and Newhook trade), I'm interested. If the cost is greatly more than the Dach trade, I pass.
Again, the reason why the parts were parts we could spare with Dach and Newhook was because they were/are inferior players to Necas. It won't be the same cost to acquire Necas, if it was, he'd be a Hab or playing for another team already.
The Habs may not want to pay the price it will cost to acquire Necas but rest assured some other team will.
Necas is the 6th highest scorer from that excellent 2017 draft, everyone ahead of him has signed lucrative extensions and a few that are behind him as well.
That's in the past now. Both GM's are not with the Habs or Canes anymore.
Still, there's a sunken cost there. The Canes don't have to minimize the value of a very valuable commodity (Necas) just to get rid of a player whose value is lower today than it was 12 months ago.
The situation isn' that desperate.