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.

Joe Pavelski – San Jose Sharks – Winger

Injury: lower-body, “a little longer than day to day”

Per Kevin Kurz, the San Jose beat writer for The Athletic, Pavelski is ““a little longer than day to day,” which is somewhere between the nebulous day-to-day and week-to-week time frames we’re given for most injuries. The Sharks have nine games remaining, and it would be pushing it to expect Pavelski to play more than half of them. But because he wasn’t given the dreaded week-to-week tag, he’s probably worth holding on to until we get a further update.

The big beneficiary of Pavelski’s absence is Gustav Nyquist. Nyquist moved up into Pavelski’s spot on the top line with Logan Couture and Timo Meier. Perhaps more importantly, Nyquist also took his spot on the top power play unit, which is a spot that could easily have gone to someone like Meier or Evander Kane. Nyquist’s value gets a significant bump while Pavelski is out.

Evgeni Malkin – Pittsburgh Penguins – Center

Injury: upper-body, week-to-week

Malkin took a cross-check to the ribs on Saturday and has missed two games already. With a week-to-week designation and only two-and-a-half weeks left in the season, Malkin can be dropped. Unfortunately, there’s not necessarily a beneficiary of his absence. Teddy Blueger has a top six role, but he had that prior to Malkin’s injury when he was slated to skate with Malkin and Phil Kessel. He’s still playing with Kessel, but Jared McCann was the third member of that line last night.

It’s a bit odd to say that a 37-goal-scorer can benefit from a teammate’s injury, but Jake Guentzel is going to see more time on the top power play unit with Malkin out. It’s remarkable that Guentzel ranks eighth in goals scored but only 150th in time-on-ice on the power play.

Jordan Eberle – New York Islanders – Winger

Injury: upper-body, day-to-day

Eberle has been seeing top line and top power-play unit minutes lately, but with only 31 points on the season, he’s not someone you have to hang on to. The day-to-day tag makes it likely he’ll play the majority of New York’s remaining games, but he’s by no means a must hold.

The beneficiaries of Eberle’s injuries could be Andrew Ladd and/or Josh Bailey. Bailey seems likely to take Eberle’s spot on the top PP unit as Bailey ranks fourth among NYI forwards in PP ice time. It’s possible Andrew Ladd takes Eberle’s spot on the top line since he plays on the right wing. In that scenario, neither guy’s value takes a huge jump. The hope is that Bailey gets the nod both at even and with the man-advantage. We’ll know on Thursday when the Isles visit Montreal.