It is never easy to foresee the unforeseen. Injuries happen every day in the NHL and here at Fantasy Alarm, our goal will be to help you try to stay on top of those maladies. Counting all the latest bumps, bites, and bruises, there were 98 players held out of lineups. Five of those are long term injuries from a previous year. Those players are likely not to return or have retired. That leaves 93 who have been hurt this season. Here are some of the more notable ouches out there and their possible prognosis on this Friday. Periodic updates and returns are provided as well. The latest walking wounded is listed below.
Centers
Tampa Bay lost three centers in one night with knee and/or lower body injuries. Tyler Johnson and Vladislav Namestnikov are both out with knee injuries, while Cedric Paquette suffered a lower body injury. Johnson’s injury looked the most troubling as he could not put any weight on his knee. More tests will be done in the coming days so stay tuned for further updates.
Kyle Turris is out with a finger injury and is listed as day-to-day. He has missed the last couple games where there were some optimal match-ups. It may be a few more days until he returns, but it is not believed to be a serious injury. There does seem to be an issue with shooting and gripping the hockey stick. There are no torn ligaments in the finger or hand here, so do not worry about that. He should be back sooner rather than later.
Wingers
Nick Ritchie has whiplash and is considered day-to-day. He did not travel on the mini road trip and his status for the weekend is questionable. The strangest thing not realized is just how much of an impact Ritchie did have in Anaheim’s lineup. In the worst case, the forward should be able to return to the lineup sometime next week.
Rick Nash has an upper body, err shoulder, ailment that will keep him out until the weekend at least. It was thought he might play on Thursday against Carolina, but that was not the case. He is getting closer at least. The winger does seem to be a little more banged up than usual this season. New York and fantasy hockey owners alike are going to need him to step up as the scoring chances have been there but the goals have not come.
Patric Hornqvist is now day-to-day with a concussion which means he likely is out until next week. That is probably a conservative minimum until he goes through the full protocol. Just when it looked like Pittsburgh was one of the healthiest teams in the league, the injury bug really hit with significance. The good news is that the Penguins so far are not missing a beat despite five significant players out. Check back next Friday to see what the right winger’s status is.
Defensemen
Mathew Dumba is out with an illness and is day to day. The first thing that runs through one’s mind is the mumps because of last week’s outbreak. This is indeed the flu and on the bright side, Dumba did return to practice yesterday. He may even be able to return by the weekend if the defenseman gets his strength back to hockey shape. Apparently, he lost a quick 5-8 pounds while being sick.
Dougie Hamilton and Michael Stone are out with lower and upper body injuries respectively. Since these injuries happened late on Thursday night, information is a little scarce. Hamilton is the more impactful player fantasy wise. Assistant coach Martin Gelinas, he did not believe the Hamilton injury to be serious. Both players will be examined later today to determine a more precise prognosis.
Goalies
Henrik Lundqvist was playing great on the road and then was suddenly scratched on Thursday with a lower body injury. It is likely just some soreness that accelerated up to the level of resting the player for a game. Call it a tweak or whatever but that just seems what it is. Do not be surprised if he returns sometime over the weekend or early next week. His situation will be carefully monitored in the case that he unexpectedly misses more time.
Ondrej Pavelec looked to be healthy returning from a knee injury and then suddenly had a cleanout procedure on said knee. That does sound perplexing. Winnipeg is not in the playoff race and it just seemed more prudent to have the issue taken care of now. Pavelec will be out several weeks at least and there is a possibility he may not play the rest of the regular season. He did not carry much fantasy significance but this pretty kills any relevance for 2016-17.
Chris Wassel can be heard on Fantasy Hockey X every week and on various places throughout the internet. He can be followed on Fantasy Alarm and Twitter @ChrisWasselDFS. A special thanks this week to nhl.com, George Richards, Brian Metzer, Adam Vingan, Dan Rosen, and Selene Parekh of The Fantasy Doctors for all their information.