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.


Josh Morrissey - Winnipeg Jets - Defence

Injury: upper-body, day-to-day.

The Jets blueline is starting to get real thin, especially if defenceman Josh Morrissey is out for an extended period of the time. The team is expected to give an update on his status today, but it’s very likely that he isn’t ready to go on Tuesday versus the Minnesota Wild. For now, fantasy owners need to sit tight and wait for an update on how long Morrissey is expected to be out.

Torey Krug - Boston Bruins - Defence

Injury: lower-body, day-to-day.

It looks like defenceman Torey Krug won’t miss any time due to a lower-body injury. He was seen at practice earlier today, so there is a strong chance that he suits up Tuesday against the San Jose Sharks. This is good news for Krug owners who will need him to continue to rack up points on the powerplay.

Jamie Benn - Dallas Stars  - Center

Injury: upper-body, day-to-day.

Dallas Stars captain Jamie Benn left Sunday’s game with an upper-body injury and did not return. Early word is that Benn won’t miss an extended period of time, but his status for Tuesday is still up in the air. The veteran forward is having a down season by his standards, so if he were to be out for a couple of weeks, it may be time to think about dropping him. We won’t go there just yet, but it’s something to start looking at.

Mats Zuccarello - Dallas Stars - Winger

Injury: arm, four weeks.

It was a terrible Sunday to be a Dallas Stars fan. First Jamie Benn went down due to injury and later on in the game, newly acquired winger Mats Zuccarello blocked a shot, left the game and did not return. It was later reported that Zuccarello may have broken his arm and that he is expected to be out of the lineup for a minimum of four weeks. That is about as unlucky as you can get. Zuccarello made an impact in his first game,scoring a goal and adding an assist, but if he is expected to miss more than the four weeks reported, he is probably droppable in most formats. Tough injury to sustain at this point of the season, but fantasy hockey playoffs are just around the corner a some owners won’t be able to wait for him to get healthy and return to action.

Brian Dumoulin - Pittsburgh Penguins - Defence

Injury: concussion, out indefinitely.

Defenseman Brian Dumoulin suffered a concussion on Saturday night and there is no timetable for his return. Concussions are never easy to deal with, mostly because it’s hard to put a timeframe on when a player might be ready to return. The 27-year-old has 21-points in 62 games so far this season, so for fantasy teams that can’t hold on to Dumoulin while he is out, it’s  safe to drop him and look for other options available on the waiver wire.

Carter Hart - Philadelphia Flyers - Goalie

Injury: lower-body, minimum ten days.

It looks like goalie Carter Hart is expected to be out of the lineup a minimum of ten days with a lower-body injury. This is a tough break for owners to have to deal with because Hart has been so good since his call up. Brian Elliott is expected to take back the start job while the rookie goalie is on the sideline, but let’s hope that when he comes back, he can retake his starting job. If Hart were to lost his job to Elliott, that would be an even bigger blow to fantasy owners. The injury itself doesn’t seem serious, so he should be back at the beginning of next week.

Erik Karlsson - San Jose Sharks - Defence

Injury: groin, day-to-day.

Erik Karlsson is once again making an appearance on the injury report. The All-Star defenceman is out with a groin injury and his status for Tuesday against the Bruins is still unknown. The team hasn’t given an update on his status, so we should know more after practice. The good news is that it seems to be a tweaked groin and not a strain, so hopefully a couple of days off will do the trick.