It is never easy to foresee the unforeseen. Injuries happen every day in the NHL and here at FantasyAlarm, 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 110 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 105 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
Logan Couture’s injury was deemed to not be that serious initially by the coaching staff. It is a facial injury that has kept him out all week. Some have speculated worse but dental pain is dental pain in this case. Spitting teeth is never fun ladies and gentlemen. It is confirmed that Couture will miss the rest of the Canadian road trip and be back sometime next week. This may be too late for most fantasy hockey fans.
Aleksander Barkov is out day to day with an upper body injury. He was held out of Thursday’s game against Montreal. This Is something to monitor as Florida is out of the playoff race for all intents and purposes. There are a few rumors he may be shut down for the season but do not read much into those just yet. It is best to monitor this to see if he does play over the weekend or not. Other Florida players may also be shut down too.
Wingers
Anthony Mantha is out for the season with a fractured finger. For now, he is being listed as day to day but the reality is this is it for the rookie campaign of this Detroit forward. This has been an up and down season literally for Mantha but expect him to be back next season and better than ever. Expect even more upside and more opportunities for the winger going forward.
Nikita Kucherov is day to day with an illness. This was significant more for the last minute nature of his scratch last night than anything else. Hearing a player is out right around 7:00 pm ET on a busy Thursday is never good. Fortunately, it does not seem this is one of those long-term bugs. It is just a normal case of the flu. Check his status for the weekend and of Steven Stamkos and Tyler Johnson. All could be back for Tampa Bay in very short order.
Zach Parise may be back as soon as Sunday against Colorado which is great news considering how bad his injury looked at first. Tom Wilson literally skewered him right in the eye the other night and the worst was thought immediately. It turns out that other than a disfigured face around the eye, and some pain, all is not lost. Vision appears to be much better now and once he gets some practice in, Parise should be ready to go. It’s just a matter of time.
Defensemen
Erik Karlsson created panic just by being held out of Thursday night’s game against Minnesota with a lower body injury. It is believed to be the ankle/foot that was swollen from blocking a shot on Tuesday against Philadelphia. The only thing that can be done is to see if the swelling goes down faster as they will do some tests. Karlsson could even return over the weekend but Ottawa will not rush this injury. They cannot afford to.
Travis Hamonic is day to day again with an upper body injury. Sometimes it is just not smart to fight that early in the game but the Islanders were looking for any kind of spark they could find. They ultimately lost the game 6-3 and Hamonic for maybe the rest of the regular season. It just seems that the defenseman is out more than he is in sometimes. Keep an eye on this one as there were some rumors of a cast. Either way, Hamonic is likely out tonight at the very minimum.
Goalies
John Gibson finally should play this weekend after what feels like missing forever with a groin injury. He played one game and it did not feel right so he missed another couple weeks with the malady. Jonathan Bernier held his ground but there were signs in last night’s Winnipeg game of cracks in his game. It is a nice way of saying teams were figuring him out again. Anaheim is in the middle of a heated race for the Pacific Division and need a healthy Gibson the rest of the way.
Eddie Lack suffered a nasty whiplash injury that was feared to be much worse when Andreas Athanasiou collided into him on Monday. He was carted off on a stretcher but thankfully there were no signs of paralysis. That was the initial fear. Neck strain from whiplash was the basic diagnosis and Lack could be at practice as soon as tomorrow. When would he see game action? That is one to wait and see because of Carolina’s compressed schedule. Sometime later next week is possible.
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, Brian Metzer, Eric Stephens, Dan Rosen, and Selene Parekh of The Fantasy Doctors for all their information.