Tampa Bay Trades Artyukhin to Anaheim for Miller

The Tampa Bay Lightning have dealt big, agitating winger Evgeni Artyukhin to Anaheim for Drew Miller and a third-round draft pick.

The Lightning get: a prospect with some promise, but Miller may not put it all together on a consistent enough basis to become a fantasy asset. He gets pretty buried in Tampa’s system and will probably start the year in the AHL. He will be one of the first call-ups though. The deal was done for the cap space (about $425 freed up – more of Miller is in the minors) and the draft pick.

The Ducks get: a penalty minute machine. Artyukhin was a monster in the second half last year in the PIM category.

Fantasy players impacted: Mike Brown can kiss a roster spot goodbye. I had him pegged for 140 PIM, but with George Parros and Artyukhin already giving the team a combined 350 – they can little afford to have a third regular do that. Artyukhin should also be good for another five points or so – given that his linemate has been upgraded from Jeff Halpern to Andrew Ebbett (or that kind of comparable) now.

This also ensures that Steve Downie has made the team and you should be bumping his PIM total in TB up by a good 30 percent or more.