The pre-Olympic break trade deadline in the NHL has now officially passed, so rosters are frozen until after the Games. The actual deadline is March 3rd.
Live game blogging begins an hour earlier than normal tonight with a 6:00pm et start time for the MON @ PHI game.
The trade: Chicago acquires Kim Johnsson and Nick Leddy from Minnesota for Cam Barker.
Fantasy impact: You’ve almost got to like this trade for both sides. For Chicago, they’ve added a veteran presence on the blueline in Johnsson that should help their chances of a deeper playoff run. He can fill in on the PP when needed, but that won’t be his primary role. His fantasy value is pretty limited, but in extremely deep leagues he’ll get a boost because he’ll no doubt fall into more offensive chances because the Hawks are pretty deadly up front.
Perhaps almost as importantly for this team is by dealing Barker, who’s tied up for another two years at around $3M, the team has freed up some cap space after this season. Johnsson will become a UFA this summer.
Leddy, although of no use today to the Hawks, is a great skater with a skilled offensive upside. He was the 16th overall pick from last summer’s draft and his acquisition is, in some respects, like freezing Barker’s potential and storing it for a few years down the line when the Hawks could actually get better use of it. Barker was, in many ways, not being used to the best of his abilities by Chicago now just because of the depth already in place on this roster.
By going to Minnesota, Barker’s owners should begin to see more offensive production almost immediately. Marek Zidlicky, who will be a UFA this summer (and according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune today, could be re-signed before the trade deadline), is currently the top offensive threat on the blueline with Brent Burns in the mix too. Barker has really good offensive potential and we got a taste of that last year with his 40 points in 68 GP. Although it’s a shame he won’t be able to go forward and grow with that incredible Hawks’ roster, this should help his short-term value and shouldn’t negatively impact his long-term worth either.
The trade: New York Rangers acquire Jody Shelley for a draft pick.
Fantasy impact: Donald Brashear was waived by the team (and he cleared today), so Shelley will step into the heavyweight role. Brashear had been a healthy scratch quite a bit. Shelley is still pretty far down on the PIM list though, so there are likely better options out there if you need that category filled on your team. In fact, the recently-acquired Brandon Prust has been doing fairly well in that department lately with 29 PIM in his four starts with the Rangers. Shelley didn’t even make $1M, but every little bit of extra cap space helps these days and we could still see the Sharks do something before March 3rd.
The trade: Centre Matt Cullen is shipped from the Hurricanes to the Senators for defenceman Alexandre Picard and a second round pick this summer. Cullen will be a UFA at season’s end, while Picard will be an RFA.
Fantasy impact: Cullen has 40 points (12-28) in 60 GP and he’s a really effective power play specialist. In case you hadn’t checked recently, Ottawa’s PP ranks dead-last in the NHL at 15.1%. Granted, having Daniel Alfredsson, Jason Spezza and Filip Kuba healthy can only help that cause. Still, Cullen will be a benefit in that area. He also has pretty good vision on the ice and can pass well, so you can never really have too many of those players on a team.
His playoff experience won’t hurt either on a Sens squad that is, as of today, actually in a position to potentially secure home ice advantage in the playoffs.
The real question for poolies though is where will Cullen fit in?
He was either the second or third line centre for Carolina, depending on your perspective. Last night, as an example, he was skating with Sergei Samsonov and Tom Kostopoulos. Spezza and Mike Fisher should remain the top two centres on this team, so would Cullen slide into a role between Ryan Shannon and Alex Kovalev like we saw with Peter Regin against the Caps last night? Chris Kelly, Mike Fisher and Daniel Alfredsson were used as a checking/ offensive role of sorts in that tilt, so might we see some permutation of Kelly and Fisher both on the same line – rather than centring their own units, like normal?
Or would Cullen, to ensure he stays inside of the top six, be used on the wing? We’ll see. And does Cullen’s arrival mean that Milan Michalek will lose top power play time? Cullen’s a PP1-level player with his puck-moving ability, so will he play the point with Kuba? If so, you’d have to imagine that Spezza and Alfie are untouchable on the first unit, so either Michalek or Alex Kovalev would have to go if Cullen moves right onto PP1.
The Sens play the Red Wings tomorrow, so that should give us our first look at what Cory Clouston has in mind. For the time being, Cullen should only be grabbed if he would have been useful for you in his role with the Canes. His value is probably a wash at best with today’s news, at least until we see a line assignment reason to give him an upgrade.
Picard has little fantasy value at this point.