Fantasy Impact: The Anaheim Ducks acquire Patrick Eaves from the Dallas Stars in exchange for a conditional second-round pick in 2017.

The Ducks get: A 32-year-old Band-Aid Boy in the midst of a career year. There’s no sugar coating this; Patrick Eaves has been injury prone throughout his career. Now in his 13^th season, Eaves has skated 70+ games only twice and hasn’t done so in a decade. The last time he even reached the 60-game plateau was 2010-11. He’ll surely reach that mark this season because he’s at 59 games played already but it’s worth asking how long he can dodge the injury bug and not just for fantasy owners but for the Ducks as well.

The conditions on the pick the Ducks are sending are that the Stars get Anaheim’s first-round pick should Anaheim make the Conference Finals and should Eaves play in at least 50% of their playoff games. Both clubs have a lot riding on Eaves’ health.

As we’ve discussed ad nauseam, there was no better spot for Eaves than in Dallas where he’d been mooching off of Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin all season long. Check out his most common linemates from this season:

41.6%    BENN,JAMIE – EAVES,PATRICK – SEGUIN,TYLER

27.1%    BENN,JAMIE – EAKIN,CODY – EAVES,PATRICK

12.3%    EAVES,PATRICK – ROUSSEL,ANTOINE – SEGUIN,TYLER

11.4%    EAKIN,CODY – EAVES,PATRICK – ROUSSEL,ANTOINE

7.6%      EAVES,PATRICK – SHARP,PATRICK – SPEZZA,JASON

Eaves was also a prominent fixture as the net-front man on the Stars’ top power play unit. One that features many of these superstar players.

To call Eaves a mooch is a bit harsh. He did a great job fitting in with the Stars’ top players. Not everyone can do that. He has paid the price on a nightly basis going into the net-front area to score the career-high 21 goals he has achieved. But most of that scoring has come on the power play.

11 of Eaves’ 21 goals have come with the man-advantage, along with six assists. That accounts for nearly half of his point total. At 5-on-5, Eaves has been a merely average scorer putting up 1.52 Points/60, which is right in line with his average for the past three seasons all spent skating with big name guys on the high-flying Stars.

In Anaheim, Eaves won’t have the same access to power play time. The Ducks are so loaded with options that they have used Corey Perry on their second PP unit for a good deal of this season. Eaves’ skillset overlaps with what Perry, Ryan Kesler and (to a lesser extent) Rickard Rakell offer. These are all net-front men. Sure, you can never have enough players willing to crash and bang. The Kings put together a pseudo dynasty on this notion but the bottom line is that what’s lofted Eaves to fantasy relevance is power-play production and it doesn’t appear that he’ll have the same access in Anaheim.

Expect Eaves to bump Nick Ritchie off of their second PP unit. Ritchie hasn’t had much fantasy value but this hurts nonetheless.

It will be interesting to see where Eaves lines up. The Ducks have been experimenting with splitting up Ryan Getzlaf from Perry and using Rakell at center to spread the offense around over the past few years and have done so recently with Antoine Vermette suspended:

#1           28.2%    COGLIANO,ANDREW – KESLER,RYAN – SILFVERBERG,JAKOB

#2           25.7%    GETZLAF,RYAN – KASE,ONDREJ – RITCHIE,NICK

#3           21.4%    KERDILES,NICOLAS – PERRY,COREY – RAKELL,RICKARD

#4           15%        CRAMAROSSA,JOSEPH – SHAW,LOGAN – THOMPSON,NATE

Without these re-arrangements, the Ducks’ bottom-six is woeful. You can bet that they will continue these experiments, which perhaps puts Eaves on Getzlaf’s wing while pushing one of Ondrej Kase or Ritchie to a different line. Another option would be leaving Getzlaf with the youngsters and putting Eaves up with Rakell and Perry. However it shakes out, the expectation is that Eaves will be on a scoring line.

Currently the Ducks have eight forwards averaging 1.4 Points/60 at 5-on-5. Eaves gives them a ninth. All of Getzlaf, Perry, Rakell, Kesler, Ritchie, Kase, Jakub Silfverberg and Andrew Cogliano should remain in the top-nine mixture. Pushing Vermette to the fourth line when he returns is the logical conclusion. Whether or not we should apply logical conclusions to a Randy Carlyle lineup is another question altogether.

Eaves is likely no longer fantasy relevant in most leagues but he should score enough in a depth role to remain relevant in deep formats.

The Stars get: a solid return on a rental. I am dubious that the pick they get will wind up being a first-rounder but the chance it becomes one is enticing. Ultimately, they’ve added draft capital for a player who wasn’t helping them enough to be a playoff team.  They could still bring Eaves back but suddenly that’s looking like an expensive proposition for a player on the wrong side of the aging curve. Better to shop elsewhere.

It is worth asking if the Stars could have done better than this. Word is that no less than 10 teams were in on acquiring Eaves to some degree. His contract was so easy to fit under the cap that he’d have been a fit anywhere. Not getting a first-rounder outright may prove to be a misstep but we aren’t privy to all that was offered.

The Stars must now begin the process of finding a new net-front man. Check out their lines from their last game:

#1           26%        BENN,JAMIE – EAKIN,CODY – EAVES,PATRICK

#2           24.8%    ROUSSEL,ANTOINE – SEGUIN,TYLER – SHARP,PATRICK

#3           19%        FAKSA,RADEK – SHORE,DEVIN – SPEZZA,JASON

#4           6.6%      CRACKNELL,ADAM – KORPIKOSKI,LAURI – RITCHIE,BRETT

The Stars have used Cody Eakin in replacement of Benn on the top PP unit on multiple occasions and they seem to like the fit with he and Benn at even strength. You’d have to consider him a top candidate for a spike in minutes.

Patrick Sharp, the man whose PP time Eaves stole this year, is another candidate to grab extra minutes but he too is on the trading block so how long could this last?

Antoine Roussel is the name I keep circling back around to. He is effective enough to linger on a scoring line with Seguin and certainly has the skills to get into the net-front area and bang in the greasy goals. He has gotten top PP unit time in the past and it has resulted in fleeting fantasy value. Roussel is money in deeper leagues that count hits and PIM but may rise to be valued in all settings.

Players this helps, in order:

Antoine Roussel

Cody Eakin

Players this hurts, in order:

Patrick Eaves

Antoine Vermette

Nick Ritchie

Nicolas Kerdiles

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