Welcome to another edition of the Fantasy Hockey Injury Report. Every week, we will discuss some key injuries around the league and how they may affect your fantasy hockey team.  It’s never easy to deal with the injury bug, but it doesn’t have to be the demise of your fantasy hockey team. Let’s take a look at who’s dealing with what this week!

 

Week 12 NHL Fantasy Hockey Injury Report

Kirill Kaprizov - Minnesota Wild - Upper-body

Minnesota forward Kirill Kaprizov has been placed on IR due to an upper-body injury. He was injured against the Winnipeg Jets after taking a cross-check to the ribs. The team has said that the Russian winger is expected to miss one-to-two weeks, so the injury doesn’t seem too serious. He may be dealing with a ton of soreness, so it would be wise to give him all the time in the world to heal and come back. The Wild need him healthy if they want to stay alive and have a chance of making the playoffs. 

Filip Gustavsson - Minnesota Wild - Lower-body

Sticking with the Minnesota Wild, the news for Filip Gustavsson is not as good. The netminder was also placed on IR but there is no timetable for his return. Reports are that he is expected to miss a couple of weeks, but that doesn’t mean he will be back any time soon. He has an MRI on Tuesday to see just how serious his injury is, but we don’t know the results of that. For now, fantasy owners need to stash him away until we get another update. If he’s expected to miss multiple weeks, then we can decide on keeping him or dropping him and looking for a replacement on the waiver wire.

Timo Meier - New Jersey Devils - Abdomen

With just 15 points on the season, this had been a year to forget for Timo Miere. The Devils winger missed the last game due to an abdomen injury and we don’t know how long he is going to be out. The team hasn’t given us a timetable other than saying that he is still being evaluated. That doesn’t bode well for him to make a quick return. At this point in the season, fantasy owners who can’t hold onto him anymore can part ways with him. We can’t keep waiting for him to turn his season around and now with his most recent injury, there’s no certainty that he will return soon. Chalk this up as a bad Timo year and hope he can return to form next season.

Charlie Lindgren - Washington Capitals - Upper-body

The Washington Capitals were hoping to get Charlie Lindgren back soon, but instead, he was placed on Ir retroactive to December 30th. The news isn’t all bad because he could make a return to the lineup as early as Sunday. The move to place him on IR would have more to do with the team needing the roster spot to activate Max Pacioretty. The veteran netminder has been stellar this season-- posting a 2.27 GAA and a .928 SV%-- so if he were to miss an extended period of time, this would hurt both the team and fantasy owners. Let’s wait for another update on his condition and hope for some good news.

Players Dealing With Illnesses


Not every player listed above is fantasy-relevant, but it’s still important to know which players may miss a game or two due to illness. It’s hard to gauge how much time a player is going to miss due to illness because everyone deals with it differently. It’s also quite frustrating to see a player out last minute because of it. Ryan Johansen and Radko Gudas are probably depth players in deeper formats, but they do contribute in specific categories. It would shock me to see them miss more than a single game. Tarasov is probably a player to forget. He has one win on the season and a 4.02 GAA. There is no reason he should be on any fantasy hockey team, let alone in the NHL.