Fantasy Impact: Oilers Acquire Mike Green
Dobber
2020-02-24
The Edmonton Oilers have acquired Mike Green from the Detroit Red Wings for Kyle Brodziak and a conditional draft pick. Per Mark Spector, the Oilers give up a fourth round draft pick in 2020, but that becomes a third-rounder in 2021 if the team gets to the WCF and Green plays half the games.
The Oilers get: An elite point-per-game puck-moving defenseman…if this was 2009. Unfortunately this is 2020 and not only does Green get injured for 30 to 40 games per season now, but he has just 37 points in his last 91 games (minus-33). That being said, Edmonton is on a record-breaking pace for power-play efficiency right now so Green couldn’t have joined a better situation to have a bit of a rebound. Passing to Connor McDavid on the power play is a slight upgrade to setting up Dylan Larkin.
The Red Wings get: A draft pick. Some salary relief. Though Green’s contract is up after this year.
Fantasy Players Impacted: Green benefits in a huge way because his fantasy value was absolute nil. Now it’s…something? As noted, Green will see an upgrade to the cast around him with the man advantage. A drastic upgrade. And that should, and will, translate into an uptick in production. Hell, even if he has completely lost his touch he should still be good for a few secondary assists that bounce off his ass and onto the stick of Leon Draisaitl am I right?
Where this really impacts is on Edmonton’s blue line. With Oscar Klefbom on the shelf, the team had been leaning on Darnell Nurse and Ethan Bear for the last three games. Nurse saw nearly 12 minutes of PP time in that span. But he had nothing to show for it, while Bear had one power-play point in four minutes of action. So while those two have not been overly effective yet, their window to do so has now closed. They will go back to their pre-Klefbom-injury production rates. Bear, by the way, is a right-shooting defenseman just like Green. Klefbom and Nurse shoot left. I don’t think this move benefits or hinders McDavid or Draisaitl at all.
In Detroit, whenever Filip Hronek returns from his head injury there will be more PP time for him. In the meantime, Madison Bowey will gladly take that.
Fantasy Players this helps, in order:
- Mike Green
- Filip Hronek
- Madison Bowey
Fantasy Players this hurts, in order:
- Ethan Bear
- Darnell Nurse