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The trade deadline has come and gone with teams making their final moves, either to set up their playoff push, or to sell for the future.  I covered all of the trades on this very site over the last week, so if you want to get my previous analysis, go back and take a look.  Today, I'm going to take a look at early returns on all of the trades.  What role are these players getting, how are they doing, etc.  Let's get to it!
It's one of my favorite posts of the year!  Sure, a lot of trades have been done in advance of the deadline, but there's sure to be more action today.  Starting around noon eastern, I'll be updating this post with instant analysis on every trade that takes place.  All of the moves from Wednesday and Thursday are below as well, with all previous moves in other posts.  
Surprisingly, we're having the most action ahead of the trade deadline that I can ever remember.  There were a lot of trades over thee last two days that I'll be sure to cover below, but I have to start off with a four goal game.  Anze Kopitar scored four goals in the 6-5 OT win over the Jets.  I'm shocked that this was actually Kopitar's second four goal game of his career.  Kopitar has a good chance for 30 goals now for the first time in six years.  Kopitar has played his way into being a hold in all formats as he's closing in on a point per game.  With the Kings in the thick of a playoff race, he should continue to get 20+ minutes a night.  Kopitar has shown very few signs of slowing down in his age 35 season.  He's one of the best players of his generation and doesn't get all of the credit that he deserves.  Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
The rich keep getting richer.  The Boston Bruins acquired Dmitry Orlov and Garnet Hathaway from the Capitals on Thursday, sending draft picks and Craig Smith to Washington, and a pick to the Wild for retaining salary.  I think this trade is far more interesting from the Washington perspective.  They couldn't agree to a contract with Orlov, with the dispute being over the term of his next deal.  Until a few days ago, it seemed farfetched that they would weaken their team for this season, but I actually think it's a smart move.  Even if they snuck into the playoffs, they weren't going anywhere.  They gained some additional ammo that they can flip in the offseason to make a push again next season.  They have a lot of additional pending UFA's that could be on the way out, so it's hard to figure out who will be there in a week to benefit from this move.  My guess is Trevor van Riemsdyk takes Orlov's spot on PP2, but he's also a UFA making 950k so he's a logical target for a lot of teams at that price, so he could be on the move too.  Smith should crack the lineup, but I'm not expecting much at all.  He's off the radar until we see him play.  As for Boston, Orlov won't be getting PP time there with Lindholm holding down PP2, so he takes a slight hit to his value.  The Bruins are so good that Orlov should stumble into enough points to be valuable in deeper leagues, but we're talking 14+ teams.  Hathaway should do what he usually does, and that is pile up a bunch of hits and PIM with an okay goal rate for a fourth liner.  All in all, this trade impacts real life more than fantasy.  Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
Another star player has made his way to the Eastern Conference well ahead of the trade deadline.  We already had Horvat and Tarasenko move, and now we have a former Conn Smythe winner.  Ryan O'Reilly was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs, along with Noel Acciari, for a bevy of draft picks.  The Wild also acquired a pick for retaining salary, and there were prospects involved, but none of them are particularly relevant.  For fantasy, we care about RoR and Acciari.  Let's start with Acciari because it's easier.  Acciari moved right onto Toronto's fourth line.  He scored a goal against the Blackhawks on Sunday, and is piling up hits.  He'll be a deep league value for his hits and decent goal rate.  O'Reilly is an interesting debate.  He's easily having the worst offensive season in the last decade.  On the other hand, RoR has been playing much better lately, and he went right onto the second line with Tavares and Marner.  He dished an assist in his debut on Saturday playing just over 16 minutes in the 5-1 blowout against Montreal.  He also won 12 of 14 draws, which is notable that he bumped Tavares from the faceoff circle most of the time.  I'm not rushing to pick up RoR, mostly because we know that he's not cracking Toronto's first power play unit.  That said, there's upside in Toronto that he couldn't touch in St. Louis again.  If you want to stream him on Tuesday against the Sabres and see where it goes, I can get behind that.  
As good as the Jets have been, Friday was a huge boost for their team.  Not only did they get Wheeler, Schmidt and Perfetti back, Nikolaj Ehlers returned for his first game since the second game of the season.  He immediately went onto a line with Pierre-Luc Dubois and Kyle Connor, and it worked out as well as it has in the past.  In the 4-2 win over the Lightning, Dubois scored two goals with four shots and four PIM, with Connor having a goal and an assist plus four PIM of his own.  Sunday was even better with Connor scoring a hat trick, Dubois dishing four assists, and Ehlers scoring a goal and two assists.  This line has the potential to be one of the best in hockey yet again, and with Dubois playing the best hockey of his career right now, it can be even better than last season.  All of them are easily top 50 players with Connor in the top 20, and the other two with the potential to push towards that, but probably a step behind that.  Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
As fun as it is to make fun of Toronto's Stanley Cup drought, it's very impressive when somebody breaks one of their major records.  On Saturday, Mitch Marner did just that, getting a point in his 19th consecutive game, scoring twice on five shots.  Toronto fans love to make Marner their whipping boy, but this should give him a respite until the playoffs come along.  The shot rate is slowly creeping back up for Marner, which is a necessity if he's going to approach last season's point total.  He's a bit behind at even strength, but he's managed to be even better on the power play.  Marner is as safe as it gets in fantasy at this point and remains in the top 20.  Let's take a look at what else happened over the weekend:
As someone who is a big believer in Jason Robertson and had him ranked 32nd overall, a bit ahead of consensus, I did not see this coming.  Robertson scored a hat trick on Thursday versus the Ducks, bringing him to 22+17 in 24 games.  Is that good?  Then you see Robertson is averaging under 18 minutes per game and realize that given a normal superstar workload, it would be even better!  He's been absolutely incredible to this point and if the season ended today, he'd be the Hart Trophy winner.  Is it going to last like this?  Probably not.  But he's clearly a top 10 player at this point, which is insane considering that two seasons ago, he was a second round pick rookie.  Whatever scout led Dallas to picking Robertson deserves all of the money.  Let's see what else happened over the last two nights:
With a strange schedule this week due to Thanksgiving in the United States, I'm going to be back on Tuesday recapping tonight's action.  I know it's been a bit for daily notes, but managing through this snowstorm in Buffalo has taken up a lot of time.  As a result, I'm going to change things up and talk about one player on each team that is changing my opinion about them for fantasy, for better or worse.  Let me know in the comments section if you like this type of post (or if you don't, speak the truth) so I know going forward.  Let's get to it! Things couldn't be going worse for John Klingberg with the Ducks. The team signed him in order to help out in the early part of the season and probably trade him at the deadline for assets.  Instead, he hasn't helped at all, and is even off the first power play unit now.  The shot rate is dreadful, as is the plus-minus.  You can still hold for upside later in the year, but he's no longer must-own in 12'ers and even 10'ers.
Mikhail Sergachev had the game of the weekend, scoring two goals and two assists on three shots in the 6-3 win over the Capitals.  However, I was starting this post with Sergachev after watching the first ten minutes of the game.  Sergachev moved to the first power play unit and immediately delivered, with one goal and one primary assist coming there.  That is a massive boon to his value.  Whether it lasts, who is to say?  I would bet against it staying that way for the whole season, which is why I wouldn't panic if I owned Victor Hedman.  However, in the short term, this is enough to make Sergachev a #2 defenseman in a 12 man league, with upside to be a #1.  Getting to feed Stamkos and Kucherov for shots over and over again is a godsend to fantasy value.  Let's take a look at what else happened over the weekend:
As a Sabres fan, the last decade has been bleak, to say the least.  There's starting to be some light at the end of the tunnel, and the newest example came on Monday night.  The Sabres did something they hadn't in 33 years: win a game after being down by four goals. The Sabres came back from 4-0 to tie the game at 4, then went down 5-4 before Alex Tuch tied the game with 2:14 left, then Tage Thompson won it with 11 seconds left. The team is 6-1-2 in the last nine games with plenty of encouraging signs.  We should see Owen Power sooner than later as well.  From a fantasy perspective, the biggest story has to be Thompson.  He's up to 28 goals on the season and over three shots per game.  The jump he's made this season while moving to center is remarkable.  Thompson is still available in over 50% of leagues and quite frankly, I don't understand it at all.  He's a clear hold.  Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights: