The St. Louis Blues have acquired forward Jakub Vrana from the Detroit Red Wings in exchange for forward Dylan McLaughlin and a seventh-round draft pick in 2025.

The Blues receive: Vrana, a potential top-6 winger who has scored at between 0.7-0.75 PTS/GP over his previous three seasons. More recently, Vrana had been sidelined by shoulder surgery, spent time in the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program, was demoted to the AHL, and was also healthy scratched upon his recall. It had become apparent that he was no longer a part of the Red Wings' plans.

The Red Wings receive: McLaughlin, a 27-year-old career AHL player, as well as a late-round pick two years from now. Suffice to say, the Red Wings gave away Vrana and even retained 50% of his salary ($5,250,000 cap hit/AAV).

Fantasy players impacted: Vrana will have an opportunity to earn top-6 minutes again on a Blues team that has recently unloaded Vladimir Tarasenko, Ryan O'Reilly, and Ivan Barbashev. Kasperi Kapanen, who the Blues claimed off waivers last weekend, has been in a similar situation to Vrana as a player his former team wanted to unload. So far Kapanen has a goal in two games while averaging just under 18 minutes on a scoring line with Pavel Buchnevich and Robert Thomas, so that might give you an idea of what Vrana’s usage could potentially be like.

It's possible that Vrana bumps either Kapanen or Brandon Saad out of the top 6. However, at this point Vrana should be considered an unknown quantity and not relied upon as a player who can score at a 60-point pace. Because of his upside, Vrana is worth taking a flier on in mid-level to deeper leagues, as he is 16% rostered in Yahoo and 44% rostered in Fantrax.

Vrana played in just five games for the Red Wings this season, so this trade should have very little impact on the Red Wings’ roster at the time the trade was completed. Their recent trades of Filip Hronek, Tyler Bertuzzi, and now Vrana clear $12 million in cap space, which could allow the Wings to add via trade or free agency in the offseason.

Players this helps, in order:

Vrana

Players this hurts, in order:

Kapanen

Saad

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