The Montreal Canadiens have traded winger Artturi Lehkonen to the Colorado Avalanche for prospect defenseman Justin Barron and a second-round draft pick. The Avs also acquired Andrew Cogliano from the San Jose Sharks for a fifth-round draft pick.

The Habs get: a much-needed top prospect defenseman. Barron is ranked 28^th in my Top 50 Fantasy Prospect Defensemen list. Plus a high draft pick. Between Kaiden Guhle and Barron, the Habs have a very good one-two punch on the back end in their future.

The Avs get: an excellent two-way winger for their third line. On a high-scoring team like Colorado, almost by default Lehkonen should start producing more than his current pace of a point every two games. Cogliano also adds speed, experience and defense to the forward corps.

Fantasy Players Impacted: Lehkonen is on pace for 41 points. You may want to uptick that to 45 or even 50 – and that's with no PP time and being outside the top six. But with the wingers leaving town, there is now plenty of opportunity for some prospects to get a look. Such as Jesse Ylonen and Michael Pezzetta. Can Cole Caufield get any better than he has been this past month?

Justin Barron is a right shot. With David Savard out, Barron should see some time with the big club right away. Longer term, with him on the right and Guhle on the left – there is your future on the blue line for Montreal.

In Colorado, Gabriel Landeskog is sidelined for several more weeks. So you may actually see Lehkonen get a look on the second line with Nazem Kadri and Andre Burakovsky (Valeri Nichushkin currently holds Landeskog's spot on the big line). When Landeskog returns, this will knock JT Compher back to the third line and possibly takes Logan O'Connor and/or Nicolas Aube-Kubel out of the lineup. Alex Newhook will also lose a bit of ice time.

Fantasy Players this helps, in order:

Barron

Lehkonen

Ylonen

Fantasy Players this hurts, in order:

Compher

Newhook

O’Connor

Aube-Kubel