The Vegas Golden Knights have signed defenseman Alex Pietrangelo to a massive seven-year contract worth $8.8M AAV (which is huge by Covid-era standards). The deal puts the Knights $6.9M above the salary cap, so look for another move to come.

The Golden Knights get: the top defenseman on the free agent market. Pietrangelo is as strong defensively as anyone in the league, and his offensive skills probably place him in the Top 10 or 12 in that category as well.

Fantasy Players Impacted: Shea Theodore will take a bit of a hit here. But, as with the Kevin Shattenkirk-Pietrangelo relationship from years back, Theodore will still be 'the man' for running the power play. Pietrangelo will be the secondary guy with the man advantage, and he'll be the top guy for shutting down the opposition. He'll put up the same points as he has over the years with Shattenkirk on his team, likely around 50. There are other places Pietrangelo could have signed and become a 60-point defenseman. This isn't one of them. I'm going to give Pietrangelo a slight 'this hurts' rating.

While Theodore takes a tiny hit, his overall development curve is trending upwards in a huge way. And that eliminates any hit he would have taken. So don't worry – his production will still rise, just maybe not quite as much now.

Nate Schmidt, everyone's favorite candidate to be traded now, will take a hit if he does stay. He just lost his secondary PP job. Alec Martinez, who had eight points in 10 games after arriving from Los Angeles, also loses out here. And prospect Nicolas Hague will have to wait a long time to get a sniff of decent power-play time, with Theodore and Pietrangelo taking it all. Hague just lost most of his keeper league value.

Fantasy Players this helps, in order:

None

Fantasy Players this hurts, in order:

Alex Pietrangelo

Nicolas Hague

Alec Martinez

Shea Theodore

Nate Schmidt