The Colorado Avalanche traded a 2021 fourth-round draft pick to the Ottawa Senators for forward Vladislav Namestnikov.

The Avalanche get: A versatile and steady forward capable of playing both center and wing, and who historically has complimented scoring-line players as well as chipped in from a checking line. Namestnikov’s points-per-game average has been between 0.37 and 0.45 in five of the last six seasons, which his other season being 0.59 when he started off on fire with Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov.

Fantasy Players Impacted: The Senators, in moving out J-G Pageau and Namestnikov, have created some room to get Bobby Ryan back into the lineup. With the recent addition via waivers of Jayce Hawryluk as well as the fact that Mikkel Boedker has been patiently sitting in the press box, the team still has enough experienced players to fill in and thereby not force the youngsters to come up to the big club en masse. The team will continue to filter the kids up and down from the AHL and give them tastes, be it Drake Batherson, Josh Norris, Filip Chlapik, Logan Brown, Vitaly Abramov, Jonathan Davidsson or Alex Formenton. But they are not forced to keep anyone of them on the team due to a roster shortage.

In Colorado it is where things get muddled. We all know about the Big 3 (Nathan MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog, Mikko Rantanen), as well as how Nazem Kadri and Andre Burakovsky have really stepped up this year. But injuries have muddied the waters here and it’s a challenge to sift through it. Rantanen is likely out until April. Burakovsky is day-to-day with an illness. Kadri is out for another three weeks at least. So what you will see is Namestnikov getting a significant chance early on. He’ll have three to five weeks to make an impact, but in all likelihood it won’t be enough of an impact to hold onto a key role come playoff time when the walking wounded return. Joonas Donskoi was tried on the big line last game. It didn’t work out and Donskoi has just four points in his last 26 games. I suspect Namestnikov gets a crack on that line right away. Perhaps this means 10 or 15 productive games before he slows and eventually loses the spot to Rantanen. For the short term, I think Namestnikov makes for a good waiver claim. No impact on Valeri Nichushkin or Burakovsky.

Fantasy Players this helps, in order: