o'sullivan

Carolina traded Justin Williams to the Los Angeles Kings for Patrick O'Sullivan and a second-round pick.

Carolina then traded O'Sullivan and a different second rounder, plus a fifth rounder to the Oilers for Erik Cole.

The Hurricanes get: their power forward back. Cole plays a rough and tumble style and while his production will improve back in his old stoming grounds, he won't be the 40-goal player he looked to be prior to his broken neck.

The Kings get: a young, experienced Band-Aid Boy. They have enough up-and-coming potential stars, so O'Sullivan was expendable. In Williams, they have a legitimate 75-point player (when healthy) who will help.

The Oilers get: another potential star and two picks. He'll have a shot at centering Ales Hemsky. I would be, however, a little worried that teams have traded him twice so early in his career. Then again, Cole and Williams have also been traded twice and they aren't very old either…

Fantasy players impacted: O'Sullivan will be better in the short term, although not being a part of the promising Kings could hurt his production in the long term (as in – three years from now). Overall, I bump him down a tiny bit in keeper leagues, but up a bit in one-year leagues. Cole's value goes up a bit and his arrival could remove Sergei Samsonov from the Staal line. Watch for that. If you own Samsonov, quietly shop him.

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Since Williams is hurt right now, the Kings will have room for Teddy Purcell to remain on the roster. He may be a decent pickup for the stretch run.

*update – the later acquisition of Kotalik changes O'Sullivan's outlook a bit. You could see the following:

Kotalik-O'Sullivan-Hemsky

OR

Kotalik-Horcoff-Hemsky

with O'Sullivan back on the LW with Gagner and Cogliano.