Stempniak swapped for Steen and Colaiacovo

The Toronto Maple Leafs acquired winger Lee Stempniak from the St. Louis Blues for forward Alex Steen and defenseman Carlo Colaiacovo.
 

The Maple Leafs get: a little more offensive depth. Stempniak is showing this year that he can be a 60-point player and the Leafs have only a few of those. They also shed a body from their back end.

The Blues get: some decent two-way upside in Steen and a solid offensive defenseman in Colaiacovo. The only problem is, the latter hardly plays – he is injured more than he is healthy.

Fantasy Players Impacted: This move will really help Steen and I think you will be surprised at what he does with the added ice time. He will mesh nicely on Patrik Berglund's wing. He has 70-point upside, but won't see that for two or three years. Meanwhile, enjoy his jump in production for this year.

Any ice time is good ice time for Colaiacovo. The youngster was getting the occasional healthy scratch. Thta said, his on-ice vision is at a level that can't be taught and when he plays he will put up points. If you have a loose reserve system, he makes a great pickup. Be prepared for an injury to strike soon, though. His arrival hurts Steve Wagner – not that Wagner was lighting it up.

Nikolai Kulemin owners should be worried. The team brought in Stempniak with the intention of putting him in their top six. Since messing with the Antropov-Stajan-Ponikarovsky line would be silly, and Grabovski is the heart and soul of the second line, that leaves Kulemin or Niklas Hagman as the odd man out of the top six. Looking at Hagman's paycheck, I think it's safe to say that he won't be bumped.