Hutch's Hockey: Change Of Scenery

What a week it was for trades. There were five NHL-level trades since last Monday, four of which included multiple players. General managers are not wasting time making deals right now -- and it makes sense. Get the guys you want in your system before the 4 Nations Face-Off interrupts the league for two weeks. There will still be plenty of business to attend to between the end of that break and the March 7 trade deadline. 

The Canucks were the busiest team on the market. In separate deals, they traded J.T. Miller, Erik Brannstrom and prospect Jackson Dorrington to the Rangers for Filip Chytil and Victor Mancini. They also got a top-13 protected first-round pick in that deal, which they packaged with Danton Heinen, Vincent Desharnais and prospect Melvin Fernstrom to get Marcus Pettersson and Drew O'Connor from the Penguins. 

From the Canucks' angle, their forward group is weaker and their defense is stronger, both now and into the future. They were backed into a corner here -- Miller and Elias Pettersson didn't mesh anymore and one of them had to go. Why the team didn't do more to make it work, I'll never know. What they did here is get younger while not completely sacrificing this season. I'm willing to speculatively add Chytil in deeper fantasy formats. If he gets top-six minutes and thrives, that's a good thing for the Canucks. Mancini is an AHL-level player so far, but at 22 years old, he is nowhere near his peak yet. He was called up from AHL Abbotsford on Sunday, and I think he gets a look at some point this season. In the long run, he's likely better than Noah Juulsen and Derek Forbort. Marcus Pettersson is also a clear upgrade over Desharnais, giving the Canucks a third good blueliner in addition to Quinn Hughes and Filip Hronek. This is a blue line that still needs some care. They'll have to get Pettersson signed for the price to be worth it. The last part of business here, essentially a swap of Heinen and O'Connor, is a lateral move, though I like O'Connor just a bit more. He's not as physical a player as Dakota Joshua or Kiefer Sherwood, but O'Connor has good size and plays hard, a perfect fit for a workmanlike bottom six in Vancouver. 

As for the Rangers, they get back Miller, a known quantity and a true top-six center, to supplement their battle for a playoff spot in a crowded bubble in the Eastern Conference. Miller lined up at center between Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad on Saturday versus the Bruins, but having three centers (including Vincent Trocheck) capable of top-six minutes should lead to mixing and matching. Miller never formally requested a trade, but the tension in Vancouver shouldn't exist in New York, so he should get back to being a do-it-all fantasy powerhouse. The price was steep for the Rangers, especially after they gave Mancini 15 games of action earlier this season. Brannstrom looks like he'll be nothing more than a high-end AHL guy who gets a call-up or two every year, and I don't think he's cracking the Rangers' roster. They may miss Chytil, but the Rangers have torn down the foundation of their old "kids line" after dealing Chytil and Kaapo Kakko away over the last couple of months. 

On the Penguins' side of things, this is a clear sign of a rebuild. They loaded up with a pick and a prospect and took on a couple of players in Heinen and Desharnais that just didn't fit with the Canucks. They'll miss both Pettersson and O'Connor, but they got something out of the deal instead of seeing both players walk as free agents in July. Heinen and Desharnais are both under contract for another year at mid-range prices, but they'll have a chance to stick in the NHL. Maybe the Penguins flip them later, or maybe they hold for now. Desharnais has a real opportunity to become a regular in Pittsburgh, as the combination of Ryan Shea and Ryan Graves has done little to impress anyone in 2024-25. Desharnais is also a right-shot blueliner, while Shea and Graves are left-shot, so there's a natural opening on the third pairing. 

The other big deal was Thursday's swap between the Flyers and the Flames, which sent Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee to Calgary while Andrei Kuzmenko and Jakob Pelletier headed to Philadelphia. You know a trade is a good one when you can't immediately tell which team won, and that's the case here. I think both sides got what they wanted from the deal. For the Flames, they add two forwards capable of middle-six roles that may benefit from playing under a less restrictive system. Frost is a center, addressing a need for organizational depth. They're young, and while Farabee is under contract for another three years at a $5 million cap hit, that's not a problem for a team swimming in cap space. It shouldn't mess with the team's chemistry too much while they stay in the thick of the playoff race. 

The Flyers, meanwhile, are trying to get up the hill on their rebuild. While Frost and Farabee are young, the organization likely got everything out of them that it could. This deal was more about opening future roster spots for younger prospects. In return, they eat the last year of a bad contract for Kuzmenko, who could still be back at a lower cap hit if he clicks with countryman and former KHL teammate Matvei Michkov. Jakob Pelletier and a pair of picks also account for the vision toward the future. Pelletier is relentless on offense, a playmaker who remains responsible in his own zone. He's small, but he plays larger than he is, and his positivity is contagious. As long as he takes care of his defensive duties, he'll be a reliable forward in Philadelphia. 

Saturday brought a trade between the Stars and the Sharks, with Mikael Granlund and Cody Ceci landing in Dallas for a pair of picks, including a first-rounder. This is a little bit of market-setting for the Stars, but it also helps them address two significant losses due to injuries. Granlund is more or less a Tyler Seguin (hip) replacement, while Ceci showed well in a top-four role in San Jose and won't be asked to do nearly as much in Dallas, though he will help cover the absence of Miro Heiskanen (knee). Unlike other teams making deals in the past week, the Stars know their Stanley Cup window is open now and they need to go for it. They didn't lose any high-end prospects to make it happen, so that's a win. Granlund gives them a sixth pending free-agent forward, but he could be an extension candidate if he fits well. Most importantly, the Stars will be a deeper team come playoff time. They're probably not done buying, but cap space is tight now. 

Finally, there was last Monday's trade between the Islanders and the Blues that sent Scott Perunovich east. It comes as the Islanders are stocking up on blueliners -- they also plucked Adam Boqvist off waivers and signed Tony DeAngelo after his KHL stint. All of these moves suggest to me that the lower-body injury that has sidelined Noah Dobson is significant. Dobson is already on long-term injured reserve and was given a week-to-week label, but details beyond that are sparse. The defense-by-volume strategy has been deployed before, but rarely like this. Lou Lamoriello has collected three blueliners in a span of two weeks that are all ostensibly power-play options. Prior to Dobson's injury, it was him and some combination of Ryan Pulock (upper body) and Dennis Cholowski seeing power-play time. I don't think the Islanders have the skill to last in the playoff race, but no one can accuse them of sitting by and letting things happen after these moves. 

One of the things most of these moves have in common, aside from the Stars/Sharks trade, is a change of scenery. Miller obviously needed one given the fallout in Vancouver. Desharnais will get his going to Pittsburgh. Frost was long described as a player who just didn't click with John Tortorella in Philadelphia and now gets some freedom in Calgary. Kuzmenko has been dealt twice in a year after falling out of favor in both Vancouver and Calgary, while Pelletier was waived to begin the year before rebuilding his value midseason. All three of the Islanders' new defensemen have also run out of patience or opportunities in their previous stops. 

Often, if you're hearing the phrase "change of scenery," it's a polite way of saying a team is selling low on a player. Players who are performing well or a core part of a team don't need a change of scenery. Instead, it's players on the fringe or those who got lost in the shuffle of a coaching change, that get moved. It's not that any of them are bad players -- all five of the trades in the last week have been clear NHL-level moves. It's all about the team situation. Some teams have openings in places that others don't, and making a deal that mutually addresses each team's needs can lead to better results for all involved. Teams' needs can also change in season. Defense wasn't a problem for the Islanders to begin the year, but injuries have made it one since November. 

For that reason, I don't really think it's fair to say any of these teams "won" or "lost" a trade. It's not that black-and-white, especially when you consider what motivations were behind each deal. Take Vancouver in this instance. Maybe they lost the trade with the Rangers -- I think it's too early to say that outright. In any case, the first-round pick they acquired in that deal was used in the trade with Pittsburgh. So, maybe they lost one deal to win another. Maybe they got exactly what they wanted out of both, and so did the Penguins and Rangers. Aside from truly lopsided deals, which are often identified as such with the benefit of hindsight, trading in any sport is rarely a zero-sum game. 

To the waiver wire, where I'm back for a pair of Islanders defensemen. Obviously, DeAngelo is getting power-play time, and that's important for fantasy. He has three points over five games and is playing top-pairing minutes. If you need offense, go get him. Just don't overlook his partner if you're in need of a more physical player on the blue line. Alexander Romanov has four points, a plus-5 rating, 22 hits and 30 blocked shots over eight games since he returned from an upper-body injury. He's tracking toward being the sixth or seventh 100-hit, 100-block player in the league this season -- four are already there (Jacob Trouba, Radko Gudas, Moritz Seider and MacKenzie Weegar) and Washington's Martin Fehervary is a hit away. Romanov is at 95 hits and 95 blocks in just 38 contests, and while injuries are a concern, that physicality more than makes up for the risk. These types of defensemen are great bottom-of-the-roster fill-ins, especially in those moments when they're adding offense. 

Another player competing for that 100-hit, 100-block threshold in the near future is Brayden McNabb. He'll also earn a little attention as a waiver-wire option this week because he's racked up four points, a plus-6 rating, 18 hits and 15 blocked shots over his last seven outings. He's at 117 blocks and 93 hits for the season, though his physicality could get him to the double-century faster than Romanov since he tends to pile up his hits in bunches. McNabb is also a stabilizer for plus-minus rating -- he's plus-29 on the year and plays for one of the strongest defensive teams in the league. 

Vladislav Namestnikov is earning some attention again. He lost four games to a lower-body injury in mid-January, but he's returned with a goal and six assists over seven contests. He's back in a second-line role and should stay there throughout the duration of Adam Lowry's (upper body) absence. The Jets have been a goldmine in fantasy -- the top line has been dynamic and the depth players have all synergized well to put the team atop the NHL standings. Namestnikov's success alongside Nikolaj Ehlers and Cole Perfetti has been a large part of that, and he's worth rostering when he's scoring. 

Speaking of Perfetti, he's also been hot lately. His first career hat trick was Jan. 24 versus Utah, and he's added four points over four outings since that burst of scoring. He's pretty much all skill, though he's chipped in a little under a hit per game as well. Three of his last seven points have come on the power play, though he's on the second unit. His ice time has remained steady around the 15-minute-per-game mark. The 23-year-old is still young enough to be prone to streaky scoring, but he's definitely worth a look. 

One of my recurring pieces of advice is that any player in a top-line role is worth a look. That's been true for Jiri Kulich lately, and while he didn't get on the scoresheet Sunday versus the Devils, he's racked up seven points, a plus-6 rating and 22 shots on net over his last seven contests. Kulich has seen his offense take off while centering Tage Thompson and JJ Peterka. Yes, Kulich is the pivot on that line. A move to the wing has helped Thompson unlock more offense, while Kulich has been along for the ride. The Sabres wouldn't tolerate a non-performing player on the top line for multiple weeks, so you can go get Kulich and hope he stays in that spot following the 4 Nations Face-Off. 

This isn't an all-out call to add him, but keep an eye on Will Cuylle again. He found success early in the season, but his fortune largely faded when the Rangers struggled, and it hasn't come back yet. He has three points and 27 hits over his last seven outings, so there's a sign of life on offense after he endured a 13-game point drought from Dec. 22 to Jan. 18. The reason I'm willing to jump earlier on Cuylle is that I think the Rangers will eventually move him up from the third line, or move one of their three big-name centers down to play alongside him. Again, the Rangers will have moving parts here until something clicks, but I could envision a line of Miller, Trocheck and Cuylle being an absolute physical force while adding plenty of scoring if it ever comes to fruition. Add him now for the physicality if you need it -- if not, keep an eye on what strings Peter Laviolette starts pulling. 

Do not wait any longer to get Cam Talbot on your team. He's still out there in half of Yahoo formats as of Sunday afternoon, and that's too many, though managers are catching on. Since the start of January, he's 9-1-0 with a 2.46 GAA and a .915 save percentage. At worst, he's been a fantasy No. 2 for a month. The Red Wings have been completely refreshed under head coach Todd McLellan, and while the top line's performance has been the big change, Talbot's play in goal and the team's structurally sound defense has also been noticeable. 

It's also worth considering Elvis Merzlikins. He is 7-3-0 since the start of January, and he was on a stretch of seven straight games without allowing more than three goals before Sunday's meltdown in Dallas. Merzlikins is more of a target for wins than ratios -- the Blue Jackets' offense is strong despite an injury-riddled January, and that has allowed him to keep winning a fair amount. He hasn't kept his GAA under 3.00 in any of the last three seasons, but it's at a passable 2.96 in 2024-25, so he's not as much of an anchor in that category as usual. I expect the Blue Jackets will give him all the starts he can handle as long as they're in the thick of the playoff race. 

As always, I want you to make moves that make sense for your team. Whether it's a big trade in the vein of recent NHL moves, or simple waiver-wire additions to strengthen weak spots, do something to make your team better. Focus on this week ahead and then enjoy the step back from the season during the 4 Nations Face-Off, whether you watch the tournament or not. Following that break, be prepared to do everything you can for a month to finish what you started -- get your fantasy team up the standings and in the playoffs. 

Due to the break, I'll be taking a couple of weeks off from the waiver-wire column. You can expect a hearty recap of 4 Nations, any trades or major NHL moves and a look ahead to the stretch run when I return Feb. 24. Good luck, and enjoy your February!