Fantasy buzz: Impact of Shattenkirk injury on Rangers

All season long, NHL.com's fantasy hockey staff will have you covered with daily lineup news, production trends and injury notes from around the League. We will identify how these developments affect fantasy owners in year-long (Yahoo) and daily (DraftKings) formats.

READ: [Daily projected lineups, starting goaltenders]
Impact of Shattenkirk injury on Rangers
New York Rangers defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk is
out indefinitely with a meniscus tear
in his left knee. He played 17:17 in a 4-3 win against the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday, but said Friday he has been playing with knee pain since training camp. He will have surgery Monday but indicated he hopes to return before the end of the season.
Shattenkirk (95 percent owned; 152nd in Yahoo) started the season strong with 17 points (five goals, 12 assists), nine on the power play, in his first 18 games after signing a four-year contract with the Rangers on July 1. But, prior to this injury news, he had no goals and six assists (three on power play) in his past 28 games.
The Rangers have recalled defenseman Tony DeAngelo from Hartford of the American Hockey League, but second-year defenseman Brady Skjei (18 percent owned in Yahoo) has the most fantasy value to gain from this development. Ryan McDonagh leads the Rangers in ice time per game by a wide margin (23:51; Shattenkirk second at 20:16), but Skjei's offensive usage, especially on the power play, has a chance to spike in Shattenkirk's absence.

Skjei has scored 11 of his 13 points at even strength through 46 games. He had 39 points (five goals, 34 assists), seven on the power play, as a rookie last season despite being behind McDonagh in the power-play equation. Skjei's 32 even-strength points ranked tied for eighth among defensemen.
In his second NHL season, Skjei is averaging over two minutes more per game (19:59) than his rookie season (17:27). But the uptick has been in even-strength and shorthanded minutes, with a downward trend in power-play time (0:53; 1:23 last season) because of Shattenkirk's strong track record with the man-advantage.
McDonagh (216th in Yahoo) dropped out of
NHL.com's top 50 defenseman rankings this week
. He is plus-13 with 21 assists but has no goals on 64 SOG. He is likely to rejoin the rankings if he performs well on the first power-play unit in Shattenkirk's absence, but is not available in most season-long leagues.
In DraftKings formats, McDonagh gains value considering he also has a chance to see power-play usage (1:59) comparable to last season (3:05) in Shattenkirk's absence. McDonagh leads the Rangers with 111 blocked shots in 41 games (2.7 per game), and Skjei, a more-affordable option, is second with 69 in 46 games (1.5). DFS owners should consider rostering either defenseman against the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday (3 p.m. ET; ALT, MSG, NHL.TV).
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Outside fantasy replacements include Vatanen, Girard
-- New Jersey Devils defenseman Sami Vatanen is worth adding in most fantasy formats, especially as an injury replacement for Kevin Shattenkirk of the New York Rangers, after a three-assist game against the Washington Capitals on Thursday.

Vatanen (20 percent owned in Yahoo) now has nine points (one goal, eight assists), a plus-3, two power-play points and 23 shots on goal over his past nine games. John Klingberg (13 points in 10 games) of the Dallas Stars and Brent Burns (11 points in 10 games) of the San Jose Sharks are the only defensemen with more points than Vatanen since Dec. 27.
The 26-year-old got off to a slow start after being traded to the Devils from the Anaheim Ducks on Nov. 30; he had no goals, one assist, 16 SOG and was minus-5 over his first 11 games. The glaring differences in his usage since that drought are in 5-on-5 zone start percentage (first 11 games: 51.15; past nine games: 63.64) and Shot Attempts percentage (first 11 games: 46.45; past nine games: 56.52).
He leads the Devils in ice time per game (21:53) and has been playing on the first pair with Andy Greene of late. He had 50 power-play points (T-18th among defensemen) from 2014-15 to 2016-17 with the Ducks, but is taking on a bigger role in shifts per game (29.1) since joining the Devils compared to those three seasons (25.8).
Vatanen is also playing on a power-play unit with forwards Nico Hischier, Kyle Palmieri, Marcus Johansson and Drew Stafford; defenseman Will Butcher played on another unit with Taylor Hall, Brian Boyle, Jesper Bratt and Travis Zajac against the Capitals on Thursday. It's significant that Vatanen played 3:35 on the power play against the Capitals compared to Butcher's 2:25 because Vatanen has been the more valuable fantasy defenseman of late.
-- Colorado Avalanche defenseman Samuel Girard continues to produce during their eight-game winning streak, yet still has low ownership in Yahoo leagues.
Girard (2 percent owned) has seven assists, six on the power play, and is plus-3 during the eight-game streak. He's playing on the first power-play unit with forwards Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, Gabriel Landeskog and either Tyson Jost or J.T. Compher. The rookie defenseman has low ice time (15:54 per game) but ranks second among defensemen in points per 60 minutes (3.30) since Dec. 29 behind John Klingberg (3.70) of the Dallas Stars.
Nugent-Hopkins out 5-6 weeks for Oilers; Nurse, Strome on first power play
Edmonton Oilers center Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is expected to
miss 5-6 weeks with cracked ribs
. He sustained the injury against the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday prior to Edmonton's six-day break.
Nugent-Hopkins (32 percent owned, 144th in Yahoo) has his best points-per-game average (0.67) since 2014-15 (0.74) and is the fifth most-valuable Oilers forward in standard leagues behind Connor McDavid (21st), Milan Lucic (74th), Patrick Maroon (91st) and Leon Draisaitl (113th). Nugent-Hopkins leads Edmonton in goals (16) and is second in power-play points (seven).

This injury leaves a void at center in the Oilers lineup, prompting Draisaitl to be switched back to the position, away from McDavid. Edmonton had McDavid centering Maroon and Drake Caggiula (C/LW, 1 percent owned) and Draisaitl centering Lucic and Jesse Puljujarvi (RW, 7 percent) at practice Friday.
Ryan Strome (C/RW, 8 percent) was centering Jujhar Khaira and Michael Cammalleri on the third line at practice but also saw time on the first power-play unit. Another significant fantasy development was defenseman Darnell Nurse skating on that first unit with McDavid, Draisaitl, Lucic and Strome. Nurse (40 percent) entered NHL.com's top 40
fantasy defenseman rankings
this week and now has added value in all formats.