wiz

Fantasy Impact: The New York Islanders have traded defenseman James Wisniewski to the Montreal Canadiens for a second- and fifth-round draft pick.

The Habs get: a streaky and somewhat injury-prone, puck-moving defenseman. Sound familiar? Yes, they did that last year when they signed Marc-Andre Bergeron. Wisniewski has another dimension that Bergeron lacks – toughness. He’s also better in his own end. But like Bergeron, the points comes in bunches and unlike Bergeron, Wisniewski is unlikely to be tried as a winger.

The Isles get: very good draft picks. Clearly, rookie Travis Hamonic has earned a full-time job.

Fantasy Players Impacted: Wisniewski gets a boost from this deal, as with most players going to new teams. Look for some pretty impressive numbers over the next three weeks before he comes back down to Earth. His presence in the lineup now allows the Habs to scratch PK Subban. They have already scratched the youngster several times, and would probably have done so on two or three other occasions, but injuries forced them to put him back in the lineup. This acquisition is also a statement that Yannick Weber is just not ready. For the Isles, this puts Jack Hillen back on the power play, and gives more PP time to Hamonic and Andrew MacDonald.

Players this helps, in order:

1. Wisniewski

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2. Hillen

3. Hamonic/MacDonald

4. The Montreal power play (Plekanec, Kostitsyn, Gionta, Cammalleri, Gomez)

Players this hurts, in order:

1. Subban