Welcome to the Fantasy Hockey Injury Report. Once a week, we’ll take a look at some injuries around the league that may affect your fantasy hockey team. Injuries will always happen and you can’t predict when, but it’s important to be ready for the aftermath and to have a plan ready. Let’s take a look and some players who are on the shelf for the upcoming week and beyond.

Brandon Sutter - Vancouver Canucks - Center

Injury: Shoulder, four-to-six weeks.

 

Just as the Canucks were starting to get healthy, Brandon Sutter goes down with a shoulder injury. It seems like the Canucks just can’t catch a break. Elias Pettersson is likely to step into that top line center role, so that’s good news if you’re a Pettersson owner. For Sutter owners, it’s a long stay on IR. A separated shoulder is a tough injury to recover from because it’s all about regaining strength back in the shoulder. Let’s hope it’s closer to four weeks and not six.

Jonathan Quick - Los Angeles Kings - Goalie

Injury: Lower-body injury, out indefinitely.

 

What a disaster of a season it has been so far for Jonathan Quick and his fantasy owners. The All-Star goalie is making his second trip to IR this season, and once again, it’s a lower-body injury. Reports say that he didn’t reaggregate his previous injury, so that’s good news. Even when healthy, Quick just hasn’t been good. For now, Jack Campbell is going to get the starters net for the foreseeable future, but without Quick, the Kings aren’t a playoff contending team. Now is a perfect time to buy-low on him if you have the goaltending depth to make a deal. He won’t stink all season, but he’s a risk at this point.

Auston Matthews - Toronto Maple Leafs - Center

Injury: Shoulder, four-to-six weeks

 

This is a huge blow to the Maple Leafs and to fantasy owners. Matthews was on fire to start the season and now it looks like he’s going to be gone for close to six weeks with a shoulder injury. The Leafs haven’t been good over the last couple of games, and Matthews being out of the lineup probably has something to do with that. Nazem Kadri is going to get a shot to play in the top six with Tavares moving up to the top line. You can’t replace a player like Matthews, you just have to try and survive until he comes back. This is the same for fantasy owners. No player on the waiver wire will make up for his loss, so just sit back and hope the recovery process goes well.

Victor Hedman - Tampa Bay Lightning - Defence

Injury: Lower-body injury, one week.

 

Looks Like Hedman is going to escape with just a minor lower-body injury and nothing more. He should return to the lineup by the end of the week or the beginning of next week. Fantasy owners can look for a short-term solution on the blue line while waiting for Hedman to return. Expect the Lightning to play it safe with their star defenceman and not rush him back unless he feels one hundred percent ready to go.

Ondrej Palat - Tampa Bay Lightning - Winger

Injury: Lower-body injury, one week.

 

Ondrej Palat has already missed one game with a lower-body injury and he’s going to miss the next two games (Tuesday and Thursday) too. It’s unclear at this point how many games he will miss, but it’s definitely something to monitor. Fantasy owners in weekly leagues should look for another option this week and maybe next week too if his status doesn’t improve. It’s frustrating not knowing what’s going on, but you can easily find a player on the waiver wire for a week who’s hot and milk it until Palat returns to his normal spot.

Kris Letang - Pittsburgh Penguins - Defence

Injury: Lower-body injury, day-to-day.

 

You can count on three things on life-- death, taxes and Kris Letang getting hurt. We won’t say that he’s injury prone, but the Penguins’ defenceman does have a history of getting hurt, a lot. It looks like he’s just a little banged up, but he could miss Tuesday game and we don’t know about Thursday yet. It’s nothing serious, but it’s something to monitor closely. Right now it looks like nothing major, but who knows with Letang.

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