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Fantasy: 3 players whose stock has fallen

Geoff Burke / USA Today Sports

The usual flurry of offseason movement sent several key contributors to new locales, and while some will benefit from their changes of scenery, others won't be so fortunate.

Two forwards and a goaltender, in particular, are likely to suffer due to their destinations and respective situations therein.

Here's a trio of players whose fantasy stock has taken a hit heading into the 2017-18 campaign:

Marcus Johansson

The Swedish winger established career highs with 24 goals and 58 points last season with the high-powered Washington Capitals offense, but the cap-crunched club traded him to the rebuilding New Jersey Devils in early July.

Only Alex Ovechkin and T.J. Oshie notched more goals for Washington than Johansson did last season, but he'll be hard-pressed to duplicate that output on a Devils squad with considerably less scoring punch.

He's clearly talented, but going from playing alongside Evgeny Kuznetsov and Justin Williams to lining up with rookie Nico Hischier and Drew Stafford is going to significantly decrease his scoring opportunities and thus hurt his chances of matching last season's solid production.

Derek Stepan

Much like Johansson, Stepan is going from a stellar offense to a paltry one.

The New York Rangers posted the fourth-best goals-per-game mark in the league in 2016-17, and Stepan was a big reason for that, but he moves to an Arizona Coyotes club that managed the fourth-worst goal-scoring average in the NHL (2.33) last season.

Stepan is usually a lock for 30-to-40 assists and 55 points (he's collected at least 53 of the latter in each of the last four seasons), but his new Coyotes teammates are obviously much younger and far more inexperienced than the Rangers.

He'll be Arizona's No. 1 center and he'll log plenty of time on the Coyotes' first power-play unit, but he'll no longer have the luxury of setting up Rick Nash and Jimmy Vesey.

Brian Elliott

The veteran goaltender's stock certainly wasn't sky-high to begin with, but taking a two-year deal with the Philadelphia Flyers and leaving what is now arguably one of the NHL's best defense corps is surely going to hurt his fantasy value.

The Calgary Flames solidified their back end this summer by acquiring Travis Hamonic from the New York Islanders, and Elliott's former club now boasts the best defensive unit on paper this side of the Nashville Predators.

That deal happened on June 24, and six days later, the Flames re-signed Michael Stone to further secure their blue line, but Elliott still opted to bolt for the Flyers on July 1.

That decision may haunt the 32-year-old netminder, who'll be playing behind a defensive group that tied for the 10th-most goals allowed in the NHL last season and still features Andrew MacDonald in its top-4.

Elliott's numbers were by no means elite last season, but he appears destined to fare worse in 2017-18.

(Photos courtesy: Getty Images)

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