Fantasy Impact: The New York Islanders have signed diminutive winger Maxim Shabanov to a one-year, bonus-laden deal with a cap hit of $975k and an AAV of $4.475M.

I posted my feelings on Shabanov six or seven hours before the signing:

Perhaps he was waiting for my blessing? In all seriousness though, the strong rumors of him going to Philadelphia as a “done deal” proved to be false. This became apparent when July 1 came and went and nothing was announced about this apparent contract that was “done”. That’s when I went through the teams and looked at the depth charts, trying to single out needs in the top six and steer clear of teams that already had several small players (which is why I bumped Philly down to eighth in the above post – with Brink and Michkov up front already, I just couldn’t see a quarter of their forwards being small).

The Islanders can fit another small guy (Shabanov is 5-8), and they have a serious lack of skill up front after Mathew Barzal.

The Islanders get: The KHL’s third-highest scorer last season (second on a per-game basis) with 67 points in 65 games with Traktor. He added another 20 in 21 playoff games, leading the KHL in playoff goals with 10. He was a finalist for the MVP, but lost out to former NHLer Josh Leivo. Shabanov can razzle and he can dazzle, shifty and agile, he can find the open man or make the snipe himself. But he’s also just 5-8, and although the official listing for his weight is probably outdated, it does say 157 pounds and he’s probably not too far above that.

Shabanov’s production mirrors that of Artemi Panarin, though Panarin did it in his 23rd year whereas Shabanov was (and is) 24. Will he have the upside of a Panarin? That’s quite a stretch, as Panarin is a best-case scenario. He could just as easily be a Nikita Gusev, who fizzled out in the NHL, despite a few instances of “razzle dazzle”. Gusev, by the way, was one of the two players to beat Shabanov in KHL scoring with 69 points in 68 games. So temper your expectations, but he should be a good one.

Fantasy Players Impacted: The Isles PP scored at just a 12.6% rate, which is pretty horrible. And for the last two years, the lowest PP IPP on that first unit has been Bo Horvat. He may be the first to get bumped to the second unit. Clearly, his production wasn’t reliant on PPPts anyway. I think at even strength they could be linemates, in which case it’s Horvat who could benefit the most. Barzal should also enjoy a skilled gun in the top six. If Shabanov can become even a 55-point player this year (and 65-70 in future years – which is the glass half-full way of looking at it), all the skilled players on the team get a boost. It’s a lot to put on his rather thin shoulders, but he makes a good boom or bust pick in fantasy circles.

Here is Maxim Shabanov’s profile and scouting report on DobberProspects that I wrote last month.

Some Shabanov highlights: