The Edmonton Oilers trade defenseman Ethan Bear to the Carolina Hurricanes for winger Warren Foegele.

The Oilers Get: a forward who teases offensively, but keeps getting used defensively – and he's been good at it.

The Hurricanes Get: a good two-way defenseman with some offensive upside. He had a great 2019-20 campaign, but last season an injury threw a wrench in his offensive performance.

Fantasy Players Impacted: This is huge in the fantasy hockey world for Foegele, and in the real hockey world for Bear, as they join teams with opportunity. Foegele seemed stuck on a line with Jordan Staal as the top checking line. Despite his role, which he played very well, he still managed to produce about a 35-point pace. The Oilers aren't deep in terms of offensive wingers so he could finally see some secondary PP time and perhaps he latches on with Leon Draisaitl. This is huge for Foegele owners. Foegele's defensive conscience will also really help one of Draisaitl or, dare he dream – Connor McDavid.

Tyler Benson will now be in tough to make the team, but the Oilers were adding a forward one way or another, so this was going to happen regardless. I don't think this impacts Jesse Puljujarvi nor Kailer Yamamoto.

The re-signing of Tyson Barrie and big money to Duncan Keith has made Bear expendable. The Oilers are in win-now mode, even though the analytics point to Bear being a better all-around player than Barrie – he doesn't have the glitter and glamor of big numbers the way Barrie did. Clearing Bear off the roster keeps things open for Evan Bouchard, who is now NHL-ready.

The Hurricanes now add Bear to their mix of mobile defensemen. They just lost Dougie Hamilton and have reportedly replaced him with Bear and Tony DeAngelo (that's another article – when official).

Adding two defenseman to replace one will, of course, hurt the chances of a kid making the jump. Fantasy hockey owners were eyeing Joey Keane for a spot. That probably doesn't happen now. Jake Gardiner, who spent time in the press box last year (by press box, in pandemic terms, I mean Taxi Squad of course), will again struggle to get into the lineup. As for Bear himself, he'll find a new role in a top four and looks to settle in as a 35-point defenseman and secondary PP option. If the DeAngelo experiment fails then Bear has upside to produce more. But it will be dependent on DeAngelo.

Fantasy Players This Helps, In Order:

1. Warren Foegele
2. Evan Bouchard

Fantasy Players this Hurts, In Order:

1. Tyler Benson
2. Joey Keane