Fantasy Impact: Thomas Vanek to the Canadiens
steve laidlaw
2014-03-05
Fantasy Impact: The Montreal Canadiens acquired Thomas Vanek from the New York Islanders for Sebastian Collberg and a second round pick.
The Canadiens get: A streaky scorer top line scorer.
The Islanders get: A speedy prospect and a decent pick. For better or worse Garth Snow gets to save face and possibly to keep his job.
Fantasy Players Impacted: Getting traded to Long Island to skate with John Tavares was like Charlie finding the Golden Ticket for Vanek but once Tavares went down that situation was ruined so this is an upgrade for Vanek.
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The Canadiens would be unwise to break up their top scoring unit of Max Pacioretty, David Desharnais and Brendan Gallagher so Vanek probably hits the second line with Tomas Plekanec, a great two-way centerman who can help Vanek quite a bit.
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One of Alex Galchenyuk or Rene Bourque gets bumped off that line. Bourque really has no value so think Galchenyuk gets hurt if anyone.
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One of Galchenyuk or Daniel Briere is also bumped off the second power play unit. Bet on Briere here because he is looking rather over the hill. In fact, it wouldn't surprise to see Briere see some healthy scratches though it does appear that Lars Eller has been scratched for tonight's contest.
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Adding another scorer could be huge for the Canadiens team scoring as a whole.
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The Vanek departure opens up a hole in the top six on Long Island for the likes of Ryan Strome, Brock Nelson and Anders Lee to jump into. Nelson could be the big winner grabbing the top line spot next season when Tavares returns.
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Collberg doesn't see much of a change. He's a couple of years away regardless of his franchise.
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Read more on Collberg at Dobber Prospects.
Fantasy Players this helps, in order:
Thomas Vanek
Tomas Plekanec
Brock Nelson (long term)
PK Subban
Andrei Markov
Ryan Strome
Anders Lee
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Fantasy Players thus hurts, in order:
Daniel Briere
Lars Eller
Alex Galchenyuk (short term)
Kyle Okposo (short term)
Frans Nielsen (short term)