Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek on the 32 Thoughts: The Podcast – Aaron Sorkin Couldn’t Have Written a Better Ending
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Marek: “You know, we’re all wondering as well what the changes are going to be on the ice for the Carolina Hurricanes. One of the players who is a restricted free agent, has arbitration rights Martin Necas. I think we wonder about his future.
You talked about him probably being in another market next season. Could there be a fit in Boston, there?”
Friedman: “Are you talking about and Ullmark move or something like that?”
Marek: “Goalie for winger sir. Goalie for Winger?”
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Friedman: “So, I can’t remember what we said after the deadline. Although I’m pretty sure we talked about it.
Ullmark, there was something going on with the Bruins and another Eastern Conference team, a contender about Ullmark. And I can’t remember what we said exactly, so it’s really good to dive into the shallow end here without remembering what we discussed.”
Marek: “Very responsible of us. Yeah.”
Friedman: “But I do believe the Bruins and the Hurricanes talked about in Ullmark deal. Now I don’t know if it involved Necas. But I do think they talked about something. And I can’t remember if we specifically mentioned the Bruins at the time or not, but we definitely talked about something with Ullmark and an Eastern Conference team.
Now number one, it has to be recognized that Ullmark would have to be able to go there. So that, I don’t know where Carolina is or is not on his list, but I do believe it’s something these two teams talked about.
You know, the whole Necas thing. You know, Don Waddell poured a little bit of cold water on it at the season-ending media conference. But this is why I don’t let my family do interviews because I’m afraid of what they all say. Necas’ says Dad went out in a Czech interview, and basically said, yeah, it’s time. Which is something that I think a few people have suspected for a while.
I do think it’s likely he gets moved. I just think that him and the Hurricanes don’t see each other in the same value. But we’ll see how it all works out.
I mean, on paper, that makes sense to me, Jeff, but just talking on paper. I think there’s a lot of teams that are going to be looking at Necas and trying to find out what he wants. And he’s a good player. And you know, Carolina’s gonna have some options here.
I did have someone say to me that they were willing to bet me a nice steak dinner, that there’s no way that Carolina buys out (Jesperi) Kotkaniemi. They think that they’ve got a player there and they’ve just got to figure out how to make it work. But, you know, we’ll see we brought it up in the last pod. We’ll see where it goes.
Jeff one more thing about Necas.”
Marek: “Yep.”
Friedman: “Do you remember when all that Pettersson drama here, about whether he was going to sign in, not sign in Vancouver, talked with Carolina?”
Marek: “Oh, of course. Yeah. That was yeah, that was an interesting time Elliotte.”
Friedman: “So Necas was in that deal.”
Marek: “Yep.”
Friedman: “Okay. And Pettersson, in our interview with him said he never thought he was going to get dealt. But Necas was in that deal. And I just wonder if there’s something there, still. If one of the ways that Vancouver and you know if Necas is going to be moved, and I don’t it’s not for Pettersson, obviously. Let’s not go down that road. It’s not for Pettersson. But I wonder if there’s a Necas deal to be made there with Vancouver.
Like, let’s just say like, Carolina’s got a lot of D that they need to sign. Like, you know, what if they look at someone like (Filip) Hronek is making more sense for them? Like that’s, that’s the kind of thing I’m, I’m wondering about now.
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And Jeff, that I had someone who bet me a steak dinner they heard us talking about Kotkaniemi and a buyout. And he said to me, Elliotte, I will bet you a delicious steak dinner, that Kotkaniemi does not get bought out. Because the Hurricanes is an organization like him. And he said, you know what other organizations do too, and the Canucks might be one of them. So you know, we’ll see. We’ll see what happens here. But there’ll be a lot to talk about, that’s for sure.”