Welcome back to another edition of Lining Up! With more trades coming down since last week, we will take another look at some line combination fallout from the latest activity.

Let's dive in.

J.T Miller

Starting with the biggest fish in the deal, J.T Miller moved to New York and immediately slotted on the top line with Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad. The impact to Miller here will likely be felt more in leaving Vancouver than receiving better line mates because Panarin is probably an upgrade over Elias Pettersson, but arguably the effect on Miller's production won't be as substantial as simply changing teams. Perhaps the biggest beneficiary here is Zibanejad who has spent more than a third of his season at even strength with Reilly Smith and Chris Kreider. Now he finds himself lining up alongside Panarin and Miller and already has four points in his last two games to show for it. A big course correction since prior to those two games, Zibanejad was on pace for a measly 48 points. He has also been averaging just over 18 minutes of TOI this season but since joining up with Miller, he has back-to-back games of over 20 minutes. Zibanejad has been shooting more these last two games too, taking nine shots in that span. Early indications are that he has been revitalized by the impact of Miller and if this can continue, he may be in for a strong finish to the season.

On the flip slide, the people who are losing out here are likely to be Chris Kreider or Vincent Trocheck. Kreider will still have value moving forward as he has retained his spot on the top power play unit. However, last game against Vegas, Kreider played on a line with Jonny Brodzinksi and Will Cuylle while seeing only 12:21 of TOI and that's including a 100% share of power play time. In Miller's first game, Kreider saw slightly more ice time at 15:01 but still over a two-minute drop from his season average. It's good to see that he is holding a spot on the top power play, but he has already been playing in that role for most of the season and with anywhere from two to four minutes more at even strength, yet he is on pace for 34 points. It is hard to see how the arrival of Miller will improve that pace if he is losing ice time and playing on the third or even fourth line.

Similarly, Trocheck held a spot on the second line at even strength with Alexis Lafreniere and still saw over 20 minutes in the last two games since Miller joined, but he was not on the top power play unit in the game against Vegas. After posting 24 points with the man advantage last season, which helped to power him to a near point-per-game pace, Trocheck has 32 points in 52 games so far with 10 points on the power play, or nearly a third of his production. Losing out on a spot on the top unit would really cut into his value here if he is unable to get back on this unit.

Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost

In the other trade that went down last Friday, Philadelphia and Calgary swapped forwards, moving Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost for Andrei Kuzmenko and Jakob Pelletier. So far only Farabee and Frost have made their debuts due to delays in visas for the two players coming to Philadelphia. In the first game, Farabee found himself lining up alongside Nazem Kadri and Jonathan Huberdeau at even strength. He played 17:21 in his first game which is about two minutes more than his season average and landed three shots on goal. Morgan Frost meanwhile played on a line with Yegor Sharangovich and Martin Pospisil but was on the top power play unit with Huberdeau and Kadri. Frost scored a goal with five shots on net in 18:01 of ice time and nearly five of those minutes came with the man advantage. Both players experienced the turmoil of the Philadelphia system that saw them rotate up and down the lineup and even into the press box at various points in the season so the new deployment for each of them seems promising if it can hold.

Neither player was particularly roster-worthy in most leagues so far this season – Frost has a 42-point pace this season but if he can continue to see nearly three minutes more a night and secure a regular role on the top power play unit in Calgary, that could certainly help bring that up to a 50-point pace down the stretch here. In deeper leagues or in a week with a particularly favourable schedule for Calgary, Farabee could also be worth a stream with this solid

deployment at even strength.

Thomas Harley

For some non-trade related impacts, in the two games since Miro Heiskanen went down with an injury, Thomas Harley has immediately stepped up to fill the void on the power play. Just in those two games alone, Harley already has three assists while averaging an 88.2% share of the power play time in that span. Considering that Harley has been relegated to the second unit this season, it goes without saying this is a huge bump in opportunity for him. Furthermore, as highlighted by Robert Tiffin on Twitter/X, the Dallas power play is really clicking lately:

All of this points to a significant boost in production for Harley so long as Heiskanen remains sidelined, and he should easily surpass his current 43-point pace for the duration.