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 105 players held out of lineups. Five of those are long term injuries from a previous year. Those players are not expected to return or have retired. That leaves 100 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.

With bye weeks upon us, one would think the rate of injuries is not a heavy but that would be wrong. Here is some on the latest walking wounded.

Centers

Aleksander Barkov is still expected to be out for a while longer. There is no timetable for his return and the specter of season-ending injury has been introduced. He’s been skating, at least, but the upper-body injury is a concern. Do not expect him back by the All-Star break, so plan accordingly.

Logan Couture has been out with that pesky flu bug that seems to be all over the place in the league. There are no fewer than 6-to-12 players currently out or fighting the illness. That is just from the numbers given. The actual figures are probably higher. At worst, he will be back by the weekend so it is not what players like Alex Radulov and Jiri Hudler had.

Jayson Megna has roughly the same prognosis as Couture with the flu. The center should be back by the weekend or sooner. On the bright side, any rest, even if unintended, can be a good thing this time of year.

Wingers

Patrik Laine is recovering from a concussion that landed him on Injured Reserve. While wearing a non-contact jersey, he’s been skating over the past couple days so now the clock starts ticking. He needs to first skate without any setbacks and from there it’s the baseline tests and getting a few practices in without issue. There is no set timeline in place, so just continue to monitor his progress.

Cal Clutterbuck (lower-body) and Andrew Ladd (upper-body) are both day-to-day right now. They were held out of Thursday’s game against Dallas and will be monitored over the weekend. There was an argument over whether the players should be considered questionable for Saturday’s game but were not expected to play at press time. These are not serious injuries by any stretch.

Jesper Fast is day-to-day after taking a nasty hit on Tuesday against the Dallas Stars. It is believed to be an upper-body injury which will cost Fast 7-to-10 days which usually means an AC joint injury of some sort. He will miss several games and, in reality, almost two weeks when one includes the All Star Break.

Defensemen

Kris Letang is week-to-week with what is believed to be a knee injury. This may or may not be a sprained MCL as first speculated. However, it is said that his lateral movement was next to zero. That is sometimes a giveaway. The bottom line is, don’t expect him until early February, at best. More updates will come as they are warranted.

John Carlson and Morgan Rielly are both day-to-day with lower-body injuries. Do not be alarmed. Rielly will likely be back sometime next week and Carlson may be back by the weekend. These are minor injuries that won’t have much of a fantasy impact.

Victor Hedman still has the flu and is day-to-day with it currently. He already missed two games and was questionable on Thursday. It is probably best to leave him out of your lineup until the weekend. Some will be desperate to play him but be cautious, just in case.

Goalies

Semyon Varlamov is once again out with a groin injury. This will keep him out for at least two weeks and has actually landed him back on Injured Reserve. He wasn’t much of a fantasy acquisition to begin with and all this does is give Calvin Pickard another few weeks as a starter. Though, experience on this bad of a team cannot be easy.

Antti Raanta will be out likely another week or so after a groin injury suffered last weekend against Montreal. He played one period and made all ten saves but could not continue. Henrik Lundqvist will keep getting the starts until Raanta’s return. The goaltender is not believed to be badly hurt so that is good news. New York needs him back as soon as possible for stability more than anything.

James Reimer is day-to-day with personal reasons. It is not an injury but news because of the significance. Congratulations on being a father in advance as Reimer flew to be with his wife, April, for the delivery of the baby. At worst, he will be back next week to continue backing up Roberto Luongo.

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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, Helene Elliott, Chris Ryan, Dan Rosen, and Selene Parekh of The Fantasy Doctors for all their information.