Valtteri Filppula Signs With The Tampa Bay Lightning

Fantasy Impact: The Tampa Bay Lightning have signed Valtteri Filppula to a five-year $25M contract.

The Lightning get: A guy who can be a solid second line centre and fill a need with the buyout of Vincent Lecavalier. Filppula had 66 points in his last full season and is steady defensively as well.

Fantasy Players Impacted: This isn't going to hurt Detroit's forward group too much since they signed Stephen Weiss earlier today, who can step in for Filppula. He should fit right in with their forward group.

This actually may hurt Filppula's value though pretty significantly. He goes from playing with Johan Franzen, Henrik Zetterberg, and company, to probably lining up alongside Teddy Purcell and Ryan Malone in Tampa. Filppula's skill set should benefit Malone and Purcell from an offensive standpoint, and make that line much more reliable defensively.

However, it could benefit Filppula in one of these two scenarios. If he does see time on the top line in-between Martin St. Louis and Steven Stamkos, then his value goes up drastically, or if he gets rookie Jonathan Drouin on his wing for any lengthy amount of time in 2013-14.

Fantasy Players this helps, in order:

1.Purcell

2.Malone

Fantasy Players this hurts, in order:

1.Filppula (depending on where he plays)

2.Dan Cleary (if he re-signs in Detroit)

3.Franzen