The Boston Bruins have acquired defensemen Hampus Lindholm and Kodie Curran from the Anaheim Ducks for defensemen Urho Vaakanainen and John Moore, a first-round selection in 2022, and second-round selections in 2023 and 2024.

Lindholm provides Boston with a top-4 defenseman that consistently averages around 30 points per season. With the Bruins reportedly working on an extension for Lindholm, they may even envision him as their future left-side top-pairing defenseman alongside Charlie McAvoy. This would bump either Mike Reilly or Matt Grzelcyk down to the third pairing, and potentially Derek Forbort down the lineup.

Lindholm himself won't move the needle fantasy-wise, as he is rostered in only 10 percent of Yahoo leagues (31% in Fantrax) and is currently on pace for 30 points again. Yet his presence should help Jeremy Swayman and Linus Ullmark in the goals-allowed department. His underlying metrics may not be impressive (particularly recently), but moving from Jamie Drysdale to McAvoy could help those numbers.

Vaakanainen is a former first-round pick who has split time between Boston and Providence (AHL) this season. He is still only 23 and could benefit from moving to a Ducks team that has just moved two of its veteran defensemen in Josh Manson and now Lindholm.

Moore has played in only seven games this season, but he should provide some veteran depth for the Ducks as they play out the string.

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Players this helps, in order:

Vaakanainen

McAvoy

Swayman

Ullmark

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Players this hurts, in order:

Reilly

Forbort

Grzelcyk

Drysdale

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Discuss the trade at this thread on the Forum.