Welcome back to another edition of Lining Up. With all the moves that have happened recently, this week we will take a look at where some of the new trade acquisitions have been lining up on their new teams and how the deployment will impact their value.

Let's dive in.

Timo Meier

Let's start off with one of the biggest moves of the deadline, Timo Meier being acquired by New Jersey. Sunday night was his debut and he could not have asked for better deployment, skating alongside Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt and scoring a goal with three shots and three hits. Meier also joined Nico Hischier and his new line mates on the top power-play. During his tenure with San Jose this season, Meier most frequently lined up with Tomas Hertl and Kevin Labanc, two decent players but certainly not in the same stratosphere as Hughes so this is a best-case scenario for his deployment.

On the season, Meier was producing well at a 75-point pace on a tanking San Jose squad, and he continues to be a peripheral category monster with nearly four and half shots and two hits per game. If he manages to hold his spot with the top unit, he should at least have the same amount of power-play time and percentage as he did in San Jose but on a more potent squad as New Jersey has a stronger power play, scoring seven more goals with the man advantage so far. The only downside with this move is he is unlikely to see the same amount of TOI with New Jersey as he only registered 15:57 Sunday night compared to his average this season of 19:54. Regardless, with the new deployment, Meier could see a small increase in production just by virtue of being attached to Hughes as much as possible.

Patrick Kane

Another big acquisition was the Rangers finally trading for long-time Blackhawk Patrick Kane. In his first two games in New York, Kane has been lining up alongside Vincent Trochek and former linemate Artemi Panarin. This is likely the deployment that fantasy owners may have been hoping for since Panarin and Kane had previously spent significant time together in Chicago and produced well. Despite having a down season, Kane has nearly three and a half shots on goal per game, 16 goals and a low 8.5 Shooting% through 56 games. In the 2020-2021 season where he played 56 games total, Kane had the same shot rate, one less goal and consequently a lower Shooting%. That season he finished with 66 points and a 1.18 points per game rate. The big difference was he had 22 more assists in that same span.

It is unlikely that Kane will suddenly become the player of the last three seasons with a simple trade but dishing assists to Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad and Vincent Trochek as opposed to his more frequent line mates this season of Andreas Athanasiou, Max Domi and Philipp Kurashev has to improve a low assist total. Not only that, but New York has also scored nearly a full goal more per game and 50 more goals on the season than Chicago. They say a rising tide lifts all boats but moving your boat out of the kiddy pool and into the ocean should be a big help too.

Nino Niederreiter

One of the earlier trades was Nino Niederreiter being moved from Nashville to Winnipeg. Many expected, and reasonably so, that he would play a more secondary role, perhaps joining the second line and second power-play unit. In his first few games however, Niederreiter has inexplicably been receiving best-case scenario deployment, playing with Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor on the top line as well as joining them and either Blake Wheeler or Pierre-Luc Dubois on the top power-play unit. He has been able to cash in early on this deployment with three points in his past three games including three shots in each game. In this short span, he has added two full minutes of TOI and seen a 30% increase in power-play usage on top of the current hot streak.

Needless to say, this deployment for Niederreiter will no doubt raise his point total from the 42 point-pace he was on while in Nashville. At 24% rostered in Yahoo leagues and with three games remaining this week, stop reading and go add Niderreiter while he is receiving the star treatment on the top line and top power-play.

Evan Bouchard

Evan Bouchard wasn't moved at the deadline but he has so far benefitted greatly from Edmonton moving Tyson Barrie in exchange for Mattias Ekholm. Barrie last played for Edmonton on February 27^th, looking at Bouchard's game log in the four games since then, we can already tell he has assumed the role Barrie had a stranglehold on for the season. Through those four games, Bouchard has been averaging 20:48 of TOI including over 4:00 on the top power-play unit for an 81.5 %PP. Suffice to say, this is a big increase from the 17:53 TOI, 1:55 PPTOI and 37.7 %PP he has averaged on the season. As mentioned, what is more significant than the ice time increase and power-play usage is that it comes with lining up beside Conor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. With three assists already, albeit in one night, expect Bouchard to have a significant point production increase down the stretch so long as he continues to receive prime deployment.

Rasmus Sandin

Rasmus Sandin became a cap casualty due to the flurry of moves that Toronto made to bolster their roster for the impending playoff run. He was traded to Washington but finds himself with an immediate boost in deployment. Through his first two games, Sandin has already recorded five points including two on the power-play where he has assumed John Carlson's role in quarterbacking that lethal unit. He has also been lining up beside Trevor Van Riemsdyk on the top pairing that plays with Alex Ovechkin, Tom Wilson and Evgeny Kuznetsov. With this deployment, Sandin is now seeing an additional five minutes of TOI through the first two games compared to his season average, including over an extra minute on the power-play. At only 30% rostered in Yahoo leagues and with the most recent update of Carlson returning being the end of this month at the earliest, add Sandin for at least the next two weeks as Washington plays seven games during that span including Home games against St. Louis, Columbus and Chicago.