Fantasy Impact: The Pittsburgh Penguins have fired their head coach Mike Johnston as well as assistant coach Gary Agnew. Mike Sullivan is the new head coach.

The Penguins get: a former coach of the Boston Bruins (2003-04 and 2005-06, lockout year in between). The problem is, during Sullivan's "good" year with the Bruins in which they went 41-19-15, they finished 15th in league scoring as a team. It was a season in which he took Joe Thornton's 101 points from 2002-03 and turned it into 73 points in 2003-04. This doesn't bode well when you consider that Johnston was fired because he was holding his offensive studs back. Did GM Jim Rutherford simply replace one defense-first coach with another? Yes. And no. From all the quotes we read from various sources such as TSN and Sportsnet, Sullivan plans to let Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin run completely free. If so, then that's a smart move. You can't worry about the defense with this team during the regular season. Let them win games 7-5 and worry about tightening up in April.

Fantasy Players Impacted: Maybe this section should be called "Fantasy Players NOT Impacted", because you can pretty much just list the entire roster here. There is a risk, as noted above, that we're just replacing one Johnston with another. But if that's the case, there would still be an initial bump in points early on simply from the players playing more inspired hockey. But if Sullivan really does turn the Big 2 loose, then all of their linemates will step it up as well. So the question is, who will be the linemates?

It really helps that Chris Kunitz has been on fire of late. He has points in five straight, eight points in that span. So he's a lock for the Crosby line. Will Phil Kessel get moved back up there? I think he could. In fact, I think he will. Which leaves the Malkin line. Beau Bennett has been hot as well (four points in five games), but Patric Hornqvist is my pick for one wing and the under-achieving David Perron gets the other wing. Bennett may see a temporary dip in production unless and until Horny or Perron falter. Kris Letang, who is hurt right now, would theoretically get back to his near point-per-game prominence by extension. When he returns, that is. Olli Maatta will lose some PP time here, as the Penguins' power play returns to it's initial vision.

Marc-Andre Fleury will see a lot more W's. But his peripherals will hurt a little. The SV% will go down and the GAA will most definitely go up. Again, this is if Mike Sullivan is a changed coach, as he claims.

And finally – Daniel Sprong. Either he'll go to junior, or he'll get back into the lineup. I suspect he gets into the lineup for a couple of games, and then the decision will be made to send him to junior.

Fantasy Players this helps, in order:

1. Crosby (Profile – here)

2. Malkin (Profile – here)

3. Kessel

4. Letang (Profile – here)

5. Hornqvist (Profile – here)

6. Kunitz (Profile – here)

7. Perron (Profile – here)

8. Nick Bonino (Profile – here)

9. Eric Fehr (Profile – here)

10. Sprong (Profile – here)

Fantasy Players this hurts, in order: 

1. Fleury (Profile – here)

2. Bennett (Profile – here)

3. Maatta (Profile – here)