Fantasy Impact: Pascal Dupuis retiring from hockey due to blood clotting issues.

Fantasy Players Impacted: Unfortunate news for an excellent pro in Dupuis, one of the rare players who hit his peak in his thirties. Dupuis was not producing much for fantasy owners this season so he is not a huge loss on that front however there are some significant potential ramifications.

The Penguins’ depth chart takes a serious hit here as they go from having six potential top-six wingers down to five. More room for the struggling Chris Kunitz, Beau Bennett and Patric Hornqvist, I suppose. It may also signal the return of Daniel Sprong to the regular lineup as he has all too frequently been a healthy scratch.

It remains to be seen if Dupuis will officially retire or simply go into limbo a la Chris Pronger to help the Penguins save some cap space. Clearing Dupuis’ near $4 million cap hit would carve out a ton of room for Jim Rutherford to shop for that puck-moving defensemen they so definitely crave. In the grande scheme of things, adding that puck-mover could benefit everyone in the Penguins’ lineup.

Losing Dupuis does mean that wing depth becomes less of a strength to be mined in any deal acquiring a defenseman but player-for-player deals never happen anymore. The cap space is more important should the Penguins get it rather than getting caught in some cap recapture situation.

Losing a valuable two-way forward like this surely won’t help Marc-Andre Fleury in the short term, however there could be long term benefits assuming that puck-moving defenseman is brought in.

Players this helps, in order:

Daniel Sprong

Chris Kunitz

Beau Bennett

Patric Hornqvist

The whole Penguins roster should they acquire a good defenseman.

Players this hurts, in order:

Pascal Dupuis

Marc-Andre Fleury (short term)