Utah HC could be in the mix to snag the top-six forward when arbitration begins in 10 days.

It's already been a busy off-season for the Utah Hockey Club, and they've already made some big splashes.

However, while some teams are using free agency to plug the holes, Utah still may have an opportunity to create more headlines.

One area will be in salary arbitration negotiations with certain restricted free agents, including one Martin Necas from the Carolina Hurricanes.

Sports Illustrated calls Necas someone who can benefit from arbitration because "he wants to be paid like a first-line player". The numbers speak for it; he's coming off back-to-back 20-goal seasons and a career-high 71 points in 2022-23.

He also has proven to be a force on the power play; Necas has tallied 63 career power-play points in his time with the Hurricanes.

With Necas now in arbitration, SI wrote that he will likely get his payday, but since the Hurricanes are cap-limited, it could come from somewhere else in a sign-and-trade.

And with some salary cap space left, there's no reason to believe general manager Bill Armstrong may take a chance on the Czech forward.

Whether or not he does remains to be seen, but getting Necas would be a huge boost for the offence and could take the scoring load off Clayton Keller, Mattias Macelli, and others.