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Fantasy - 3 players on the waiver wire to replace Zdeno Chara

Rick Osentoski / USA TODAY Sports

How do you replace a 6-foot-7 fantasy stalwart like Boston Bruins defender Zdeno Chara? It's impossible, frankly, but that advice isn't helpful.

So let's try again. If you're looking for a Chara fill-in for the next four-to-six weeks as Boston's perennial Norris Trophy nominee convalesces, the key is to understand precisely what he is as a fantasy asset.

Chara's fantasy value is derived from doing everything pretty well while being elite in one category. Among players eligible to fill a defender's slot in fantasy hockey last season, Chara was a top-five goal scorer. While he was also top-10 in plus/minus, that's a volatile cat, and in every other stat category he was top-30 or thereabouts.

So if you need to hold the fort in Chara's absence, you should focus on defenders likely to offset the loss in goals scored. You're taking a hit across the board without him in the lineup, but the loss of his goal-scoring is where his absence is likely to hurt the most in fantasy hockey.

Lubomir Visnovsky

New York Islanders defender Lubomir Visnovsky is 39 years old and several years removed from his Norris Trophy-quality season for the Anaheim Ducks in 2010-11. He hasn't had nearly the same impact fantasy-wise since, although he did perform relatively well during the lockout-shortened season.

Visnovsky just returned from injury this week and has the potential to be productive, but he's a bit of a risky pick-up. In deeper leagues with sharp opponents, Visnovsky is your best bet to acquire a top-four defender with good offensive value. It helps that he's playing for a team with a ton of offensive talent upfront, too.

Kevin Bieksa

If you play in a league that counts PIMs, Kevin Bieksa already has a good deal of value. If you don't, he's unlikely to be owned (picked up in just 13 percent of Yahoo! Sports fantasy leagues at the moment). 

Bieksa isn't off to a hot start, but he's logging major minutes, and most importantly is playing on the Canucks' top power-play unit.

Save for last year, the rough-and-tumble Canucks marauder has managed at least five goals per season in every campaign in which he's been healthy since 2006, and, as Dobber Hockey's Terry Campkin explained recently, if Bieksa gets a boost in power-play usage, he has the potential to be a serious asset.

Ryan Ellis

Nashville Predators defender Ryan Ellis is playing second-pairing minutes, and factoring into the Predators' second-unit power play, but he's off to a tremendous start to his fourth professional season.

The former prolific junior producer has five points already, and his underlying numbers are auspicious. Not only are the Predators controlling well north of 60 percent of shot attempts with Ellis on the ice, but his even-strength on-ice shooting percentage isn't insanely high (nine percent). Meanwhile he's the second most efficient even-strength point producer in the league among defenders so far (behind only Mike Green).

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