Bo Horvat just got moved to Islanders, and you should make a play for …
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Special to Yahoo Sports
The first domino finally fell. After weeks of speculation, the Canucks finally dealt captain Bo Horvat to the Islanders, signaling that trade season is officially open. It was a blockbuster in the sense that the top trade piece was off the board, and some fantasy analysis on that will follow below. The trade deadline is a little more than a month away — note Yahoo’s default trade deadline is Feb. 22 — but it’s time to check in on which players are on the block and how their potential moves will affect your fantasy team.
Here are this week’s trade targets.
TRADE FOR
Bo Horvat, C (91% rostered) and Mathew Barzal, C, Islanders (67% rostered)
There are some split decisions on how the trade will affect Horvat’s fantasy value. Let us all first agree that despite his improved wrist shot, which has become his best weapon other than his toe drag, his shooting percentage was absurdly high. His goal-scoring rate was bound to come crashing down at some point, whether it was later this season or the next, and it showed in January when he scored “only” five goals in 13 games with a 14.3 shooting percentage.
The pessimists will say that Horvat’s scoring will dip, especially on the power play, because he’s going to a team that doesn’t have as much scoring talent as the Canucks and that sits dead last with the man advantage. However, those are the exact reasons — along with a lot of faceoff wins — the Isles acquired Horvat and, if anything, the addition of Horvat should elevate the play of everyone around him. Noah Dobson has another finisher he can pass to on the power play, bumping the ineffective Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Kyle Palmieri from the top unit, and Anders Lee and Brock Nelson might draw easier matchups at even strength.
Barzal, a potential linemate for Horvat and an elite right-handed playmaker, will finally have a good left-handed finisher on his line. On a 2-on-1 rush, the Horvat-Barzal combo could be unstoppable. As an added bonus, playing…
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