Fantasy Impact: The Colorado Avalanche have acquired forward Tomas Fleischmann from the Washington Capitals in exchange for defenseman Scott Hannan.

The Avalanche get: a top-six forward to ease the pain of losing Chris Stewart for a few weeks. They also gain a bit of cap space and they had an overage of defensemen that they needed to address.

The Caps get: an experienced veteran defenseman to provide stability. They had depth to burn up front, with Mathieu Perreault champing at the bit, so moving out Fleischmann to make room for the likes of Perreault and Marcus Johansson didn’t hurt them at all talent-wise up front. Yet on the back-end they addressed a huge need and now they no longer need to rely on the likes of Tyler Sloan or Brian Fahey quite so often.

Fantasy Players Impacted: In Washington, this may hurt John Carlson’s ice time just a tad, but not too much. This helps the likes of Johansson and Perreault, as now each of them will see time on the second line at different points throughout the season. In Colorado, Fleischmann’s regular season value increases. For whatever reason, it wasn’t working out this year in Washington, but in Colorado it should spark him. However, whether or not he can maintain that spark when the likes of Peter Mueller, TJ Galiardi or Stewart return remains to be seen. The departure of Hannan secures Kevin Shattenkirk’s roster spot in the NHL, in case you had any doubt of this before. And perhaps Jonas Holos will get some more looks.

Fantasy Players this helps, in order:

1. Johansson

2. Fleischmann (for regular season, not playoffs)

3. Perreault

Fantasy Players this hurts, in order:

1. Ryan Stoa

2. Mark Olver

3. Kevin Porter

4. Carlson (slight, but not much)