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The NHL Trade Deadline is Friday afternoon, and boy, did we have it kick into full gear on Wednesday.  While the biggest name on the block wasn't moved (Guentzel), most of the other big names already moved.  We also had a massive one for one hockey trade that makes a ton of sense for both sides.  I'm going to look at all of the recent moves and talk about the impacts for both teams, from both the short term and long term.  Let's get to it!
After his big breakout last season, Martin Necas has had a rough go of it this season.  Much like his team, he's started to turn his game around over the last month.  Since coming back from a two week injury on January 19th, when Necas had 9 goals on the season, he has seven goals in seven games, culminating with a natural hat trick in the first period against the Avalanche on Thursday.  On top of the goals, Necas has been taking a ton of shots.  He's averaging five shots on goal per game in the past seven, with 4+ in six of the last seven games.  If you're lucky enough to be in the 20% of leagues that Necas is available in, grab him immediately.  If you've held onto him, here's to hoping he keeps up this form to make up for the poor first half.  Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
It's been a disastrous season for the Wild, and it's hard to imagine them digging out of this hole.  Monday was a lone bright spot, both for the team and their oldest player.  The Wild beat the Islanders 5-0, with Marc-Andre Fleury posting a 21 save shutout.  The win gave Fleury the second most wins in NHL history, passing Patrick Roy.  It's been a very up and down career for Fleury.  He was incredible in the 2008 playoffs getting Pittsburgh to the finals.  His most iconic moment clinched the Cup the year after.  There were a handful of years right after that where his poor play was the reason the Penguins were eliminated early in the playoffs.  They won a Stanley Cup with him as the backup.  He also saved them the next year when Murray struggled early in the playoffs to lead Pittsburgh to back-to-back cups.  He carried Vegas to the Cup finals in their inaugural season.  That's how I'm going to remember MAF.  There were too many down years for him to be in that inner circle of all-time goalies, and his best generally wasn't among the current elite, as evidenced by him being a Vezina finalist once in 20 seasons.  However, when he was at his best, it was incredible to watch, and that will put him in the Hockey Hall of Fame sooner than later.  For this season, Gustavsson is back, so I expect them to split the games fairly evenly.  He's a streamer in good matchups for now, but like most goalies, MAF can turn into a hold sooner than later, or be complete unusable.  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.  
At least once a season, Nick Schmaltz has a monster game for the Desert Dogs.  One of those games came on Thursday.  The Coyotes buried the Blues 5-0, with Schmaltz recording a hat trick and adding a power play assist.  The minutes are through the roof right now, playing over 18 minutes in every game in 2023, and averaging over 20 per game.  That's enough to put him in the elite streamer range, if not on the fringe.  I can't quite get to hold with poor PIM/hits and a below average shot rate, but I can see holding him for stretches while he's playing this well.  The first line looks really good for Arizona (more on the other two later) and the Coyotes are actually above real .500 at home, plus their schedule is super home heavy the rest of the way.  Schmaltz should at least be near the top of your streaming priority list.  Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
I haven't done an updated hold/stream list since the season started, so I'm going to do that today.  Instead of two separate categories, I'm going to do three now: hold, on the fringe between bottom end hold and elite streamer, and any level of streamer.  This is for 12 team leagues.  I will only make comments on certain players that I deem noteworthy, otherwise this will be purely a list.  Assume that every starting goalie is worth holding unless noted otherwise, mostly by them being in the streaming category.  Let's get to it!
Vancouver has managed to blow multi-goal leads in each of their first four games.  Pretty remarkable stuff that already has Boudreau on the hot seat.  The good news is that there's still been some offensive bright spots for the Canucks, and Elias Pettersson is leading the way.  Pettersson had five points over the last two nights, totaling two goals, three assists, and six shots in the two games.  That brings Pettersson to 3+3 in four games, along with 3.5 shots per game.  That's a good start to one of my bold predictions of the season, which is that Pettersson will score 45+ goals this year.  Time will tell if that pans out, but I have no doubt that Pettersson can be a top 25 player despite the low penalty minutes.  Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
What’s poppin, Razzpimples? If you missed my Top 20 full-bangs defensemen piece (accounting for standard cats + blocks + PIMs), you can find it right here. Below, you'll see #21-#40. After that, I'll give a list of names to watch for various reasons, but I don't see much point ranking guys when you get to that range. It'll depend on personal preference and your team build when it comes to deciding who should be our #4 or #5 defenseman. Odds are they won't stick on your roster all season anyway. Keep in mind, these rankings are for categories leagues.
Jeff Skinner scored 40 goals in 2018-19 playing on the first line with the Sabres.  Then, for no reason at all, Ralph Krueger decided that Skinner shouldn't play on the first line anymore.  Last season, Krueger thought that Skinner, on a team devoid of talent, should play on the fourth line, or even be scratched.  Needless to say, Krueger was one of the worst coaches in the league and quickly lost his job.  Since Don Granato took over, Skinner has been back in the role he should be, and he's been thriving in the early part of this season.  Skinner scored two goals and added an assist on Saturday against the Maple Leafs.  He has 5+4 in 14 games so far with a whopping 47 shots on goal.  The shot volume will go a long way towards Skinner finding his goal scoring touch again.  I don't think he's a slam dunk hold in 12'ers just yet, but he's an elite streamer with clear upside in his role.  Let's take a look at what else happened over the weekend:
We're keeping it moving here at Razzball with the Top 40 defensemen.  If you didn't see the top 20, you can read that here.  I have some good news as well!  JKJ, who writes on the baseball side of things, is going to be helping me out with hockey this year.  He's going to have a weekly post during the season to focus on streaming.  As of now, the plan is for that to come out on Thursdays to cover the weekend since streaming is prevalent on Friday and Saturday.  Additionally, he's going to do quick team previews for the entire league.  Look out for those starting next week!  Now let's get to the top 40:
Sure, it's on the basis of playing two more games than Washington, but the Islanders in first place in late March is a truly remarkable feat.  Yes, they did make the Conference Finals last season, but in this division, they were not expected to contend for first place.  Goaltending is going a long way for their success, and their future is starting to become more of the present.  Ilya Sorokin saved 36 of 37 shots in the 2-1 OT win over the Flyers on Monday night.  That brings Sorokin to 8 wins in 11 games with a 1.97/.922 stat line.  That's elite right off the bat for the rookie which has led Sorokin to starting four games over the past two weeks.  Semyon Varlamov's numbers and Sorokin's are nearly identical and for now, Trotz seems content to split between the two of them.  Long term, Sorokin is one of the best goalies for fantasy hockey, granted he's a 25 year old rookie.  That said, he's playing enough right now that I would own Sorokin in all formats.  Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights: