Welcome inside the latest edition of Eastern Edge, a weekly fantasy hockey column at Dobber Hockey analyzing the top trending fantasy news impacting your fantasy hockey squad on a week-to-week basis.

With the NHL's trade deadline firmly in the rearview, fantasy hockey GMs can focus on the most important chunk of the schedule: fantasy playoffs. Even though the Western Conference arms race clearly had things a lot busier out west in terms of bodies on the move, there's no shortage of interesting new fantasy hot spots to analyze in the east.

If your team is still within striking distance of a spot or you already have playoff positioning locked down, ensuring your lineup is optimized for the final portion of the schedule is clearly key to going all the way to the fantasy promise land – especially when it comes to capitalizing on newly-formed line combos with key players in different cities.

With that in mind, we're taking a look at some of the top trending fantasy-related hockey news permeating the Eastern Conference. Good luck this week and let's get this paper.

Florida Forecast: Tarasenko's Impact, Ekblad's Injury Update

Heading into this deadline season the Florida Panthers were easily one of the hottest teams in the NHL, sitting at-or-near the top of the Eastern Conference with yet another impressive season for the on-ice product and front-office team. General manager Bill Zito deserves a lot of credit for putting together the first-place group he currently runs. First of all, Florida was supposed to be standing pat on what was already a deep and talented lineup from top to bottom, so the fact Zito did anything at the deadline, let alone adding the top hired gun on the market in Tarasenko, is even more majestic.

Tarasenko is already looking like a player that needs to be in your lineup on a nightly basis, one who is quickly forming some nasty offensive chemistry with his top-line teammates in Sam Reinhart and Aleksander Barkov. Take in Tarasenko's stat line from Saturday: two goals, one assist, plus-three rating, two shots on net, two hits, in only 13 minutes of ice time. That kind of production alone is a game-changer for both Barkov and Reinhart but also for secondary fantasy pieces in the likes of Sam Bennett, Anton Lundell, and even Okposo who are all being deployed with Tarasenko on the second power-play unit. That's a power-play that Paul Maurice has clicking at the fourth-best rate in the league at 26.3%.

If the Panthers can continue to cook, whomever plays with Tarasenko on the second unit is going to be worth a look down the stretch.

Speaking of the Panthers' secondary PP group, a hole on the blue line will need to be filled with the extra man as Aaron Ekblad is once again dealing with an ailment that will hold him out of Florida's lineup on a week-to-week basis. Oddly enough, it resulted from a collision with Tarasenko in the first period of the Cats' win over the Calgary Flames on Saturday night. While Ekblad works his way back from injury you can expect an uptick in minutes and opportunity for the likes of Gustav Forsling and Brandon Montour.

Evan Rodrigues is also dealing with a day-to-day-type injury, so keeping a close eye on how Maurice handles his lines over the coming games could result in some solid fantasy value to augment your roster with. Don't miss out.


Byram's Opportunity in Buffalo

For obvious reasons, a lot of the main fantasy discussion around the trade between the Colorado Avalanche and Buffalo Sabres last week focused on what adding an offensive piece in Casey Mittelstadt would mean for a Cup-contending team like Colorado – a group that already flaunts the offensive genius that is the three-headed monster of Cale Makar, Mikko Rantanen, and Nathan MacKinnon. However, we likely should be paying a lot more attention to what the Sabres received in return.

Sure, the Avs got a very intriguing forward with a lot of offensive upside in Mittelstadt who slots nicely into a beastly top-six forward group, but let's take a look at what adding a piece like Bowen Byram means to a Buffalo franchise who have, in short order, put together one of the best-looking blue-line cores in the NHL. First of all, Byram was a little bit buried in Colorado in terms of getting the ice time he needs to develop an elite two-way game and elevate his play to a level that saw him drafted fourth overall in the 2019 NHL Draft.  Byram's ceiling and potential to anchor a top-pairing and number one power-play is beyond enticing, so is his ability to be a key piece of a Sabres blue-line that already employs the likes of fellow top-five picks in Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power.

Sprinkle in the growing ability of 32nd-overall selection Mattias Samuelsson and improving confidence of goaltender Ukko-Pekka Lukkonnen and Buffalo easily has the most promising young backend group in the entire NHL – at least in terms of a bright future. As for Byram's fantasy value down the stretch, he becomes an immediate must-add, one who is already producing. In two games with the Sabres, Byram has registered one goal, one assist, seven shots, four hits, and a blocked shot while playing nearly 25 minutes a night. That's the kind of time-on-ice number you can expect with Byram in Buffalo, the exact amount of ice time a player of his caliber should be playing.

Byram's time has arrived, make sure you're doing what you can to add him to your fantasy hockey roster.


Marner Day-to-Day for Toronto, Robertson Recalled 

Considering how quiet the deadline was in Toronto, the biggest piece of Maple Leafs-related news we've heard in a couple weeks might be Mitch Marner's injury. Marner is in the midst of yet another sensational offensive season for the Buds with 25 goals and 51 assists through 62 games, so even on a game-to-game basis replacing his production is going to be difficult for both the Leafs and fantasy GMs alike. In terms of when Marner will be back in the lineup, head coach Sheldon Keefe told the media he won't return for Thursday's tilt against the Philadelphia Flyers and forward Nick Robertson was recalled, so ensure you're not one of the fantasy slackers that has Marner in the lineup – even one game of a sloppy lineup can be the difference in winning a league and getting laughed out of one.

Obviously, one or two games isn't serious, but keeping your finger on the pulse with a situation of a player as good and valuable as Marner will serve you well in ensuring your lineup is primed for winning at the most crucial time of the year. Take a look at the likes of Max Domi and Calle Jarnkrok while Marner is on the shelf; both of those players will get a good look with John Tavares and both should eat some secondary power-play time for a Toronto group that owns the second-best rating in the NHL at 27.2 percent.