After a very successful run with the New York Rangers following a trade from Winnipeg, Andrew Copp did a lot to raise his value as he was heading into free agency. There were a number of teams linked to his services but the Ann Arbor, Michigan native has chosen to sign with the Detroit Red Wings:

Copp had his best production season of his career in 2021-22 with 21 goals and 53 points in 72 games. Of course, the reason he was so coveted was how well he performed on New York's second line post-trade, accumulating 18 points in 16 games in the regular season and 14 points in 20 games in the postseason. Let's go through what it means for Detroit and for Copp in the fantasy game.

What Detroit Gets

To start with Copp's generally meagre point totals, it's important to note the lack of talent he generally got to skate with in Winnipeg, and the lack of a power-play role. Over his final three years in Winnipeg – a stretch that saw him skate 18:32 a night across three seasons – he was seventh on the team in 5-on-5 ice time per game. It varied from individual seasons, but he was constantly well behind the likes of Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor, and even behind guys like Pierre-Luc Dubois and Paul Stastny. His high TOI totals were generally a reflection of him being the team's most-used penalty killer, at least among the forwards. In the shortened 2021 COVID season, his two most-common line mates (by a wide margin) were Adam Lowry and Mason Appleton. The year before, his four most-common line mates were Lowry, Mathieu Perreault, Jansen Harkins, and Jack Roslovic. He finally got some run with the likes of Scheifele and Nikolaj Ehlers in 2021-22, but one half-season of having useful line mates doesn't make up for the years of being under-utilized.

One of the secrets to Copp's value is that he's much better offensively than he gets credit for, it was just tough to shake the "he's a checker" role because of where he was constantly used. Looking at some of his microstats tracked by Corey Sznajder, Copp graded out very well in transition, scoring chance creation for teammates, and that all started with excellent defensive zone work:

It was likely his best season in this regard, but he has long been at least a top-6 calibre player in transition. Being able to dig pucks out in the defensive end and get it moving to the offensive zone, under control, is very valuable, and it's a reason why he can help his teams drive offence. He doesn't usually shoot a lot on his own, but his highest shot-volume season was in 2021-22 and it's not a coincidence it was the one year he finally got to play with talented top-6 players.

Going to Detroit, he can immediately slot in as the second centre behind Dylan Larkin. He has been a good faceoff guy his entire career so moving him to the wing seems unlikely, at least to start the year. Detroit's rebuild is coming along and between Tyler Bertuzzi, Jakub Vrana, and Lucas Raymond, he should get at least one genuine scorer on his line. Detroit has loads of cap space, which makes them players either for another free-agent winger or acquiring someone in the trade market. Copp stands a good chance of having two good-to-great wingers alongside him, something he was missing for almost the entirety of his NHL career.

The question of fantasy upside comes down to his usage on the power play. Both he and Larkin are left shots, so they could be redundant players on the team's top PP unit. Add in those three aforementioned wingers, and someone is the odd-man out. He might not have a prominent power-play role, at least not for the entire season, and that'll keep his upside muted. For a guy that doesn't average huge shot rates and has seen declining hit rates for a few years, that is a problem in multi-cat leagues. It's worth noting that in his brief NYR stretch, he shot 25% individually and the team shot 13.7% with him on the ice at 5-on-5. Both are unsustainable, so expecting anything close to a point-per-game player is shooting way too high.

Copp has genuine 25-goal, 60-point upside, even without heavy power-play TOI. That role will decide whether those 60 points are his upside or a reasonable floor. Either way, Detroit found their 2C for the next few years at least, something they desperately needed.

Who This Hurts

Pius Suter

Michael Rasmussen

Artemi Panarin (pending another good 2C signing)

Joe Veleno

Who This Helps

Jakub Vrana