Rasmus Dahlin’s injury created the clearest fantasy change from Monday. Owen Power now has a potential path to Buffalo’s PP1, while Ottawa’s depleted defense pushed Carter Yakemchuk into a career-high workload. In Minnesota, Maxim Shabanov scored on PP1 and continued to hold a premium special-teams role.
Dahlin’s absence puts Power’s role in focus
FHI entered the season with Dahlin as an Elite Complete Driver and one of the safer high-end defense forecasts. He scored on PP1 against Florida before leaving early in the second period with an upper-body injury. Buffalo has listed him day-to-day, but he did not travel to Montreal and will miss Tuesday’s game. NHL
Power finished the win with two assists and was already carrying a substantial workload before the injury. If he takes Dahlin’s spot on PP1, his opportunity changes materially. Buffalo’s first unit produced twice against Florida, with Jack Quinn involved in both goals.
Power is therefore one of the more important players to check in Tuesday’s deployment data.
Yakemchuk’s workload is moving faster than his production
Ottawa was already without Jake Sanderson and Artem Zub before Nikolas Matinpalo left Monday’s win with an upper-body injury. That pushed Carter Yakemchuk to a career-high 22:25, including 4:07 on the power play.
Yakemchuk had never exceeded 20 minutes in an NHL game before Monday. As long as Ottawa’s blue line remains depleted, his route to meaningful offensive deployment is wider than it was a week ago. That makes him a stronger FHI opportunity case than Stephen Halliday’s power-play goal from a fourth-line role.
Shabanov converts the role FHI was watching
Maxim Shabanov scored on Minnesota’s only power play against Vegas, finishing from the right circle off a Quinn Hughes assist. He played 14:07 and generated three shots while remaining on PP1.
He played 14:07 and generated three shots. The broader role is still less convincing than the PP assignment, which is why FHI had him closer to Watch than Add: premium special-teams exposure is present, but the individual process still needs to become more consistently visible at even strength.
The broader role is still less convincing than the power-play assignment. He remains a Watch for now, but continued PP1 usage gives him a clear route to more fantasy value.
Florida’s power play finally showed something
Florida entered Monday with the league’s lowest power-play rate at 3.6%, having converted once in 28 opportunities. Against Buffalo, Sam Reinhart scored twice on four Panthers power plays, with Brady Tkachuk picking up his first point since joining Florida on the second goal. NHL
With Aleksander Barkov and Brad Marchand unavailable, the Panthers need more from the remaining premium deployment. One game does not establish a new special-teams baseline, but two goals after such a poor opening stretch makes the next few games worth watching rather than simply carrying the early PP environment forward.
Ottawa’s results are being supported from the crease
Linus Ullmark stopped 29 of 30 against New Jersey and moved to 5-0-0, having allowed six goals through his first five wins. Ottawa was outshot 30-20 Monday but still won comfortably.
That does not say much about an individual skater pickup, but it matters for FHI’s team context. Ottawa’s current environment is allowing useful fantasy outcomes even while several important players and defensemen are unavailable. The distinction becomes important when evaluating temporary opportunity for players such as Yakemchuk rather than treating every injury replacement as equivalent.