Taking alook at who is benefiting and hurting thanks to recent changes in this Sunday Ramblings…

 

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The trade deadline has been analyzed to death at this point, so lets start looking at the fallout of it all. Players switching teams affects more than just the players on the move – holes in lineups needed to be filled while some players found themselves out of a job with new hands on deck. Thanks to the fantastic DobberHockey FrozenPool tool, we can take a look at how teams are using their players now that the dust has settled. Here is a shortlist of prospects who seem to winners and losers thanks to their team's recent moves:

 

Winners

Nikolai Goldobin, VAN

His line was the least-used last night (along with Sutter and Gaunce), but he will stay in the lineup for the rest of the season which will do wonders for his development. His breakaway goal in his first game as a Canuck should help him get over being traded from the non-committal Sharks.

 

Andrei Vasilevskiy, TBL

He's probably not considered a prospect anymore, but now that he's the undisputed number-one goaltender we can stop wondering when he will receive the starts he deserves. Tampa Bay is better than they look, so his fantasy value is set to skyrocket next season.

 

Esa Lindell and Stephen Johns, DAL

Moving Oduya and Benn wont help the Stars short-term, but getting good prospects Lindell and Johns stable ice-time will reap its benefits in the future. Fans may be upset that they aren't already studs on the blueline, but the position takes time to master and these two (not to mention Honka waiting in the minors) will be real solid guys once they climb the learning curve.

 

JT Compher, COL

With the departure of Iginla and Martinsen came an opportunity for fresh blood on the wing in Colorado. The outstanding AHL rookie looks NHL ready in his brief showing so far, solidifying his roster spot for the 2017-18 season. He's currently swinging between the 3rd line with Grigorenko and Nieto the 4th with Mitchell and Comeau.

 

 

Losers

Derrick Pouliot, PIT

Pouliot will still see glimpses of NHL time as injuries occur and veterans need rest, but Pittsburgh added two left-handed d-men at the deadline, which doesn't exactly make them look confident that he could be a fill-in long-term down the stretch. There are now six left-handed d-men above him on the depth chart (though at least one has to play on the right).

 

Adrian Kempe, LAK

He wasn't seeing a ton of time with Kopitar and Gaborik to start out with, but the chanes of more went out the window for a while as newcomer Iginla will be given a fair chance to develop some chemistry in the Kings' top-six. Don't expect him to thrive as obviously with Trevor Lewis and Dustin Brown.

 

Michael McCarron, MTL

Montreal made it very clear at the deadline what kind of bottom-six they want – gritty veterans. With no room in the top-six now that Lehkonen and Danualt are producing, it looks like one more season of letting their top power-forward prospect develop in the minors.

 

Frederik Gauthier, TOR

The Leafs had hoped The Goat could be the bottom-six faceoff dominator they needed, but his play just never held up outside the faceoff circles. In comes Brian Boyle, and out goes Gauthier's bus to Marlies practice. 

 

 

No Change…Yet

Travis Konecny, PHI

The acquisition of Filppula hasn't affected the talented rookie's linemate situation yet, but if he gets a shot on the wing with the new playaker it could provide a nice boost over playing with Bellemare.

 

Curtis Lazar, CGY

Everyone was in agreement that Lazar needed a fresh start. He was worse than irrelevant in fantasy hockey, and can only get better on his new team. The problem is, Calgary had a good thing going at the deadline and didn't want to mess with it, so Lazar has not seen any action yet with the Flames. 

 

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I love being able to include some first-goal footage after my Ramblings, and luckily prospects are giving me something to show.

 

Nick Sorensen of the Sharks does some nice puckhandling before slipping one through:

{source}<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Sorensen 1st NHL goal <a href="https://t.co/7tSX3mJRHn">pic.twitter.com/7tSX3mJRHn</a></p>&mdash; steph (@myregularface) <a href="https://twitter.com/myregularface/status/837526108480294912">March 3, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>{/source}

 

It would've been hard for Adam Erne not to score in this position, but good on him to finally get his first out of the way:

{source}<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Adam Erne's first NHL goal couldn't have come at a better time! <a href="https://t.co/ITTum5M6ql">pic.twitter.com/ITTum5M6ql</a></p>&mdash; NHL Daily 365 (@NHLDaily365) <a href="https://twitter.com/NHLDaily365/status/837839246148927488">March 4, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>{/source}

 

Deflections are skill plays too, so Jordan Weal deserves some love for his 1st:

{source}<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Jordan Weal scores his first NHL goal. He's been waiting for this for a Weally long time. <a href="https://t.co/FDiByN6hBa">pic.twitter.com/FDiByN6hBa</a></p>&mdash; Sons of Penn (@SonsofPenn) <a href="https://twitter.com/SonsofPenn/status/836747909391659009">March 1, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>{/source}

 

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As always, thank you for reading, and best of luck as fantasy playoffs loom around the corner!

Hayden Soboleski

@soboleskih