The Lightning have shipped Vaclav Prospal to the Philadelphia Flyers for defensemen Alexandre Picard and a second or third round draft pick in 2009.
 

Tampa Bay gets: a solid, puck-moving defenseman who is ready for full-time NHL duty. The power play improves with Boyle (recently extended) and Picard.

Philadelphia gets: some help up front. With Lupul, Gagne and Mike Richards all on the shelf, Prospal will help in a big way. With this kind of depth – Lupul and Richards should both be back for the postseason – the Flyers obviously are not taking any chances.

Fantasy Players Impacted: Prospal, a former Flyer, will actually see less production. In the beginning his productin with increase because of the added responsibility with two key players hurt as well as the usual surge from joining a new team. In three weeks or so, Prospal will come down to Earth and the production will actually decline. He will likely be tried out on Briere's line, which should kickstart Briere. The added responsibility and PP time to Jeff Carter will now go back to normal.

In Tampa Bay, the team is running out of options up front. They don't like Michel Ouellet…but will be forced to play him a lot more. If Brad Richards goes later today, Ouellet  could very well be a first line player. He gets pretty streaky, so this experiment could succeed or fail depending on the position of the moon or the alignment of the stars. As for Picard, get him into your lineup immediately – I see a big early impact here fantasy-wise.

See what fantasy junkies have to say about this deal and make your own thoughts heard – right here.