Dubnyk to Preds; Scrivens to Oilers
Dobber Sports
2014-01-15
Fantasy Impact: The Edmonton Oilers have traded goaltender Devan Dubnyk to the Nashville Predators for Matt Hendricks. The Oilers also acquired goaltender Ben Scrivens from the Los Angeles Kings for third-round draft pick in 2014.
The Predators get: a big, experienced, underachieving goaltender with some underrated upside that could flourish under the Barry Trotz system. They needed to stop the bleeding and prospect Magnus Hellberg is not ready yet. Marek Mazanec was okay for the short term, but clearly not a long-term solution. Carter Hutton was just meant to keep the bench warm for Pekka Rinne – he was never meant to start a bunch of NHL games.
The Oilers get: an underrated goaltender in Ben Scrivens who will be reunited with coach Dallas Eakins. However, if Scrivens expects a bunch of shutouts and one-goal games in the Edmonton system – he’s in for a bit of a shock. Los Angeles has one of the best defenses in hockey. One in which I myself could go 5-1-0 with a pair of shutouts if they let me strap on the pads for six games. Is he better than Dubnyk? I’m not convinced he is, but the change of scenery and the familiar coach seems like a fair gamble.
The Kings get: a very good pick for a backup goalie who is an unrestricted free agent in six months. They also have the benefit of knowing that Martin Jones is NHL-ready and perfect for the backup role right now.
Fantasy Players Impacted: In Nashville, Hutton is now the backup and is fantasy-useless. Mazanec goes back to the AHL and will now have to battle Hellberg to keep his spot on the depth chart. Hellberg is the Golden Boy, so it could be an uphill battle regardless of talent.
Dubnyk will start a pile of games and I’m convinced he’ll win them. And he’ll do so with ridiculous numbers. Until the Olympics, you can probably count on Dubnyk to be a Top 15 NHL goalie to own. However, he is now a backup goalie – an expensive one – because the net is Rinne’s after Sochi.
Scrivens and Ilya Bryzgalov will probably 1A/1B things for the next little while. That being said, I think Eakins will start Scrivens immediately and he’ll have the net until he loses (so after one game? Three? Who knows?).
In Los Angeles, there are 35 games left and Quick will start 30 of them. Jones will start five. I don’t expect Jones to have fantasy value, other than those five games for daily league players.
Fantasy players this helps, in order:
1. Dubnyk, short-term
big gap
2. Scrivens
Fantasy players this hurts, in order:
1. Hutton
2. Mazanec
3. Dubnyk, long-term
4. Bryzgalov
For more on Martin Jones – here is his fantasy hockey scouting report and stats