Fantasy Impact: The Arizona Coyotes have traded defenseman Keith Yandle to the New York Rangers for prospect Anthony Duclair, defenseman John Moore, a 2015 first-round draft pick. Defenseman Chris Summers is also going to the Rangers in the deal.
The Rangers get: one of the best puck-moving defensemen in the game today. Yandle was a 55-point defenseman even on a team of 50-point forwards. Now that he joins a team with several 70-point forwards, fantasy owners are getting pretty excited.
The Coyotes get: one of the more exciting prospects out there in Duclair. The creative, offensive forward showed great chemistry at the WJC with fellow Coyotes’ prospect Max Domi. Arizona could afford to move out Yandle because they have Brandon Gormley, Michael Stone and Oliver Ekman-Larsson ready to take on bigger roles – though there’s not much room for OEL to take on more, but there’s some added PP time for him now.
– Get Yandle’s season-to-date defense partners HERE –
Fantasy Players Impacted: Yandle can look forward to passing the puck to Rick Nash, Derek Stepan, Derrick Brassard and Mats (close to re-signing) Zuccarello. A slight upgrade to passing the puck to Shane Doan, Antoine Vermette, Sam Gagner and Martin Erat! Can’t stress enough how much potential Yandle has on this team.
Yandle’s PP time will push Ryan McDonagh off the unit. Unless Alain Vigneault decides to sit Dan Boyle (also a possibility) and roll with a Yandle/McDonagh D-pairing. In which case this would actually help McDonagh quite a bit. For now, take it as a negative on McDonagh’s fantasy value…but could quickly be a positive if Boyle gets pushed aside for good. By the same token, Boyle will probably get that top PP job at first. And if he runs with it, then his fantasy value gets a nice boost (and the scenario where McDonagh takes a hit will come to pass). And you have to think that having Yandle on the power play will help all the offensive forwards in New York.
In Arizona, Yandle leaves a huge void, but one easily filled. Oliver Ekman-Larsson sees 3:57 per game on the PP while Yandle saw 4:25. Now OEL will get that extra 30 seconds as the main go-to guy. Meanwhile, the next highest defenseman was Michael Stone at 56 seconds and Brandon Gormley at 28 seconds. Look for each of them to see upwards of two or three minutes with the man advantage, which will be huge for their production and make them nice sleepers in one-year leagues.
Fantasy Players this helps, in order:
1. Yandle
2. Gormley
3. Stone
4. Ekman-Larsson
5. Rangers forwards
Fantasy Players this hurts, in order:
1. Boyle
2. McDonagh
Read up on prospect Anthony Duclair right here