Fantasy Impact: The Carolina Hurricanes have traded Jamie McBain and a second-round draft pick to the Buffalo Sabres for Andrej Sekera, in what was a swap of defensemen.

The Hurricanes get: a puckmover with a lot of upside, but seven years into his NHL career we’ve only seen one 25-game spurt (end of 2010-11) that showed what he can do.

The Sabres get: a puckmover with a lot of upside, but four seasons into his NHL career we’ve only seen one 14-game spurt (end of 2009-10) that showed what he can do.

Fantasy Players Impacted: In this case, McBain benefits because although Buffalo was quite deep when it comes to puck-moving defensemen – this is no longer the case. Gone are Jordan Leopold (traded to St. Louis) and TJ Brennan (traded to Florida and later traded again to Nashville). The Sabres prioritize the PP time in the following order:

1. Christian Ehrhoff

2. McBain

3. Mark Pysyk

4. Tyler Myers

5. Brayden McNabb

There is a lot of competition, but because he’s “new” I think the Sabres will give McBain first dibs. But he’ll be on a short leash.

In Carolina, Sekera enters a tougher group. Here is the PP priority, the way I see it:

1. Joni Pitkanen

2. Justin Faulk

3. Sekera

4. Ryan Murphy

So Sekera left a situation in which he would probably be second for the first time in his career, to join a situation in which he is third on the totem pole.

Fantasy Players this helps, in order:

1. McBain

2. Sekera

Mostly just the “new scenery” factor

Fantasy Players this hurts, in order:

1. McNabb/Pysyk/Murphy