This past offseason saw a lot of players changing addresses due to both free agency and trades. A lot of players received a lot of money and, not surprisingly, not all of those transactions are paying dividends early in the season (I?m looking at you, Sergei Gonchar?s -13 rating). But some teams are seeing a lot of reward in their offseason risks, and few are ?big-name? players. The one team receiving the most impact from an offseason transaction is the Atlanta Thrashers. Atlanta took advantage of Chicago?s cap purge by scooping up playoff utility man and beast Dustin Byfuglien. Many were surprised when Atlanta shifted him back to defense, but allegedly it is his preferred position. His happiness can be seen all across the score sheet: 21 games, 7 goals, 12 assists, 19 points, an Even +/- rating, 4 Game Winning Goals, 3-7-10 on the power play, first among defensemen in goals and third in points, and a career high (by 4+ minutes) 21:31 in ice time per game. Oh, and he is also an assistant captain. In addition to Byfuglien, Atlanta received Andrew Ladd. Some viewed him as another cast-off and a throw-in, but Ladd was just named the team?s captain, and is breaking out in a big way thanks to his increased role. The 2-time Stanley Cup winner (with Carolina & Chicago), and former 4th overall draft pick is playing a career high (also by 4+ minutes) 18:58 per game, and is averaging a point per game (7-14-21 in 21 games ? leading the team), has a short-handed goal, and is on pace to shatter his previous career high of 49 points. Byfuglien and Ladd have given Atlanta life, and have them in the middle of the playoff pack in the East. Another trade making a huge difference in the standings featured St. Louis and Montreal. The big name in the deal was playoff wall Jaroslav Halak, who headed to St. Louis for a couple of prospects. Montreal needed to part with one of their two #1 goalies, but Halak was a fan favorite and many expected he would stay. Instead, Montreal kept the often-booed Price. Halak has led St. Louis into West contention early, posting a 9-4-2 record with 3 shutouts and a 2.45 goals against average. Price, while not an acquisition, is also thriving thanks to Halak?s exit. The Boston Bruins have positioned themselves as early contenders to win their division, and even the Eastern Conference. While large thanks is due to Tim Thomas, the acquisition of Nathan Horton from Florida has given the club an offensive boost that it sorely lacked last season. In 18 games Horton has 8-10-18, is an outstanding +11, has three power play goals and is scoring on 19.5% of his shots. Headed the other way to Florida was Dennis Wideman. He took a large step back last season but perhaps just needed a change of scenery, as he has responded to his new digs nicely, with an Even +/- rating on a last place team, to go along with 2-8-10, four power play points in 18 games while eating up 24:16 of ice time per game. One big money free agent earning his pay is Paul Martin, who fled New Jersey to division rival Pittsburgh. In 21 games, Martin is a +3, with a respectable line of 1-9-10, three power play assists and 23:49 ice time. The Penguins need their other high priced free agent defensemen (Zbynek Michalek) to start playing as well as Martin has so they can gain ground on Philadelphia. Speaking of Philadelphia, two under-the-radar additions are performing exceptionally for them on defense: Sean O?Donnell (+15, 16:38) and Andrej Meszaros (+14, 18:44). North of the border, Calgary GM Darryl Sutter received a lot of flack of shelling out money to bring back Olli Jokinen and to a lesser extent Alex Tanguay. As much as Jokinen has done little to quiet the critics, Tanguay has done plenty to direct blame away from himself; 6-11-17, Even +/- and a 24% scoring rate in 19 games will do that. Also paying dividends in Calgary: Brendan Morrison (4-11-15, +3, 1 short handed goal) who was cut from Vancouver after training camp and signed for close to peanuts. Speaking of close to peanuts, the Leafs managed to sign Clarke MacArthur for a pittance after Atlanta walked away from his $2.4M arbitration award. A motivated MacArthur was required by friend and captain Dion Phaneuf. Though he has quieted lately, he is still on pace for his best season as a pro thanks to scoring five times in his first four games. He currently has 7-10-17 and is a +1 for the woeful Leafs, while his career best is only 17-14-31. Keeping with the Canadian teams, the Canadiens themselves are seeing some unexpected production from a low-salaried player they picked up late in the offseason. Jeff Halpern has given them 5-6-11 in 20 games, with two of those goals being game winners. Remarkably, those five goals have come on only 17 shots. While he isn?t shattering expectations in Minnesota, Matt Cullen is giving the Wild exactly what they (over)paid for and what they needed: offensive help, particularly on the power play; 12 of his 15 points this year are with the man advantage, putting him third in power play points in the league. Lastly, the New York Rangers finally realized the importance of a quality backup goaltender to ease the burden on King Henrik Lundqvist, and they signed a real good one in Martin Biron. In 7 games, Biron is 4-2 with a sparkling 2.33 GAA. With that type of production behind your #1 guy, the Rangers can go into the playoffs with a goalie who isn?t over-worked and exhausted. Stay tuned in the coming weeks for the Impact-less Acquisitions. Nick is RealGM?s NHL Feature Writer. You can reach him by email [email protected] or on twitter @NickObergan