This week we are going to do a quick survey around the league to take stock of the impacts of all the player movement we have seen this summer. With a slim free agent class, general managers have definitely been exploring a variety of options to improve their teams. The results have certainly meant an entertaining offseason, but some of the impacts are still to be seen. Over the next two weeks we will headline a few players who have potentially seen their fortunes change. For this week we are taking a look at our stock down players

The research for this article comes mainly from our Frozen Tool options with the player profile pages providing the significant source of history. We are also using the line tools to review deployment and access to high quality players. Finally, the editing team also published trade/player movement reviews indicating which players benefitted and were hurt by each significant change.

Our first stock-down player is Victor Hedman. Hedman is 35 years old and for years has been an elite fantasy producer (outside of that one really random year where Mikhael Sergachev took the top power play for some reason that was never fully explained)… except that one year isn't so much a one-off anymore. During the 25-26 season Hedman missed a large portion of the games and in his absence Darren Raddysh completely took over the top unit. Raddysh had runs on the top unit before, sometimes alone, sometimes sharing with Hedman, but with Hedman out Raddysh took it by storm and never gave it back. And honestly it isn't entirely fair to say that it was solely because Hedman missed time as there were certainly games when Hedman was in the lineup where Raddysh was still on the top unit. Hedman only made 33 appearances and in those games averaged less than 19 minutes, the first time in his career that has ever happened. Still, he is Victor Hedman after all and perhaps this was just a second fluke season. That could be the case, and Hedman managers probably had some optimism when Raddysh signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs, only to be put back on edge with John Carlson signed for two seasons. This isn't necessarily a death knell to Hedman's top power-play deployment, but it is not a good sign. Hedman has shared duties with Raddysh and the Anaheim Ducks did still occasionally deploy Jackson LaCombe on the top unit while Carlson was in town, so there are technically options, but clearly the Tampa Bay Lightning are hedging their bets here and bringing in someone who can manage the top unit. Without that power play time and production Hedman becomes a pretty boring guy to roster.

There is still a lot left to be determined with the Utah Mammoth, but the arrival of Vincent Trocheck likely means some changes down the middle. The most recent top six centers were Nick Schmaltz and Logan Cooley with the power-play forwards being Schmaltz, Cooley, Dylan Guenther, and Clayton Keller. Trocheck was consistently used in the top six on the Rangers, as well as on the top power play. Basically, something has to give here. Only two of Schmaltz, Cooley, and Trocheck will get to continue in anything like their previous deployment. Sure, one could move to the wing and then they would all fit into the top six, but there just isn't room on the power play. It is kind of hard to argue with the production the top unit put up in Utah last year, but I am not sure why you bring a guy into the lineup in Trocheck who has played more than 60 percent of his team's power play in each of the last six years, and 20+ minutes overall in the last three to have him in a depth role.

Mats Zuccarello has been something of an ageless wonder the last four or five years. He will be 39 by the time the season starts but has been putting up 70-point pace seasons for the last six seasons, with the one exception being a 93-point pace season. Clearly getting 18-20 minutes a night, and 75 percent of the team's power play, and mostly locked in with Kirill Kaprizov has been doing wonders for him. There is a lot up in the air for him now though. He won't be in Minnesota, but trying to find a place in the Los Angeles Kings' lineup. L.A. is without Anze Kopitar, leaving a spot open, but Zuccarello not being a center isn't going to take advantage of that. Best case scenario is he connects with Artemi Panarin the same way he did with Kaprizov and plays a top line, top power-play role, but it is not clear that that is what is going to happen. At the end of the season the top power play was Panarin, Kopitar, Adrian Kempe, and Alex Laferriere. Theoretically Quinton Byfield slots into the Kopitar spot, and Kevin Fiala who was out with injury could replace Laferriere. That leaves Zuccarello on the outs. There is a lot of conjecture here, and of course we need to wait to see some lines, but Zuccarello is going to 39 and has a history of missing time. At least in Minnesota we knew exactly where he was going to slot in, how well he was going to click, and what kind of production we could expect. We can't say the same in L.A.

Stuart Skinner might not be completely fair to include here, but given at the start of last season he was the best goalie option a Stanley Cup contending team had, it seems somewhat appropriate. At time of writing, Skinner is signed to be the backup to Connor Hellebuyck. Over the last five seasons Hellebuyck has played 57, 63, 60, 64, and 66 games. That means his backups are averaging about 20 games a season. So, until/unless Hellebuyck gets his trade, Skinner has gone from a Cup contending team's best option, to a 50/50 guy on a surprising playoff team to a backup on the 26th ranked team in the NHL last year. Could things change? Well sure, Hellebuyck could get traded and then Skinner becomes the best option for a team that had one of the worst goal differentials (when Hellebuyck was their goalie) and expected goal share in the league last season. So, a trade might solve a bit of the volume issue, but it certainly isn't going to solve the potential quality problem.

That is all for this week.

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