Fantasy faceoff: Kevin Shattenkirk vs. Duncan Keith

All offseason long, NHL.com will cover all the angles leading up to your fantasy hockey draft. For some of the most compelling debates, our fantasy writers will compare two players at a given position in the same projected draft range, according to NHL.com's top 250 rankings.
Value is quantified based on factors including (but not limited to) line combinations, power-play usage, team goalie situations, injury history, bounce-back, breakout or sleeper potential, possible regression and age. Once each writer has made his argument, fans can cast their votes in our @NHLFantasy Twitter poll.
Today, we compare defensemen Kevin Shattenkirk of the New York Rangers and Duncan Keith of the Chicago Blackhawks:

NOTE: Standard Yahoo categories include goals, assists, plus/minus, penalty minutes, power-play points and shots on goal for skaters, and wins, goals-against average, save percentage and shutouts for goalies.
BEN ZWEIMAN:Shattenkirk signed a four-year contract at a discount to play for his hometown Rangers. That alone suggests Shattenkirk has one goal this season: Help New York win the Stanley Cup. Sure, that doesn't have much to do with fantasy, but it means Shattenkirk could be in for his best NHL season yet. The 28-year-old had an NHL career-high 56 points (13 goals, 43 assists) and was minus-7 with 47 penalty minutes, 27 power-play points (eight goals, 19 assists) and 161 shots on goal in 80 games for the Washington Capitals and St. Louis Blues last season. His assist total also was an NHL career high, and he was tied for second in the League among defensemen with Erik Karlsson of the Ottawa Senators in PPP behind Victor Hedman of the Tampa Bay Lightning (33). Shattenkirk's 104 PPP points (25 goals, 79 assists) the past four seasons are second among NHL defensemen behind Karlsson (114), and he has at least 25 PPP in each of the past four seasons.
The Rangers have had a relatively quiet offseason outside of landing Shattenkirk and trading center Derek Stepan to the Arizona Coyotes. They still have plenty of youth and depth at forward with Mika Zibanejad, J.T. Miller, Kevin Hayes, Jimmy Vesey and Pavel Buchnevich, as well as veteran wings Rick Nash, Mats Zuccarello and Chris Kreider. Shattenkirk will work on a New York power play that ranked 10th in the NHL last season (20.3 percent), a drop-off from St. Louis (eighth) and Washington (third), but that won't stop Shattenkirk from reaching a fifth straight season with at least 25 PPP. The Rangers were in the bottom third of the League at generating shots (29.7 per game), but they didn't have a defenseman with Shattenkirk's skill set. He has a great shot to reach 50 points with double-digit goals for the fourth time in five seasons, and he should have a better plus/minus.

When you look at Keith's numbers, they're as steady as any defenseman in the League the past nine seasons. That isn't even the number of seasons Keith has been in the NHL (12). He just turned 34 this past Sunday and will be asked to do even more with the Blackhawks defense looking thin heading into this season. Chicago might have its most underwhelming roster in the Jonathan Toews-Patrick Kane era, potentially meaning a regression in plus/minus for Keith. His shot total is inconsistent, he's reached double-digit goals once in the past seven seasons, and he isn't an elite PPP producer, not to mention his low PIM totals (62 combined since 2014-15). Shattenkirk has the clear edge.

DAVID SATRIANO: Keith may be 34, but he has shown no signs of slowing down. Last season, he had 53 points (six goals, 47 assists), finishing fifth in points and tied for third in assists among NHL defensemen. He had a plus-22 rating, 15 PPP and 183 SOG, and was the ninth-ranked defenseman in standard Yahoo leagues.
There's a reason Keith was named one of the 100 Greatest NHL Players presented by Molson Canadian. In addition to winning the Stanley Cup three times (2010, 2013, 2015) and the Conn Smythe Trophy in 2015, he's won the Norris Trophy twice (2009-10, 2013-14), been in the top 10 in Norris voting in five of the past six seasons, and has at least 40 points in each of the past eight full NHL seasons. Keith has 511 points (90 goals, 421 assists) in 913 NHL games and has had a plus rating in nine of his 11 seasons in the League. His 82-game averages are 46 points (eight goals, 38 assists), plus-15, 46 PIM, 14 PPP and 170 SOG.
Keith (25:37) averaged better than five minutes of ice time per game more than Shattenkirk (19:56), reason enough to draft him ahead of the Rangers defenseman. He also has been remarkably healthy during his NHL career, missing a total of 37 games (including 15 in one season), and plays in all situations. Keith's 3:09 of power-play ice time per game in 2016-17 was close to Shattenkirk's 3:12, and he's scored 154 of his 511 NHL points with the man-advantage. The difference is that Keith also plays shorthanded; he averaged 2:26 of ice time per game in such situations last season, compared to Shattenkirk's 0:18, and has 19 shorthanded points in his NHL career. It also could take time for Shattenkirk to get acclimated to the Rangers; it took him 16 games to score his first goal with the Capitals after being traded from the Blues last season.