Welcome to another edition of the Fantasy Hockey Injury Report. The injury report is going to keep you up to date on all the important injuries going on around the league, and how that might affect your fantasy hockey team. Make sure to check back regularly for any updates. Let’s take a look at some players that are either ruled out, or that we need to monitor.

Jack Eichel, BUF

To the surprise of absolutely no one, Jack Eichel will not be in the lineup for the Sabres when they open up their season on Thursday. The former captain still hasn’t had surgery to fix his neck issue, and there doesn’t seem to be any movement by either party on what type of procedure he should get. If he’s on your fantasy hockey team, get ready for a VERY long season.

Carey Price, MTL

The Habs injury list is already a mile long, but the loss of Carey Price is the one that will hurt the most. The veteran goalie made the decision last week to voluntarily enter the NHLPA player assistance program, which would keep him out of the lineup for a minimum of 30-days. At this point, no one really knows if Price will return to the team. He could very well be out for longer than the minimum amount of time, and to be honest, that’s ok. A person’s mental health is the most important thing in life, and it’s nice to see a world class athlete not be afraid to speak up about needing help.

Sidney Crosby & Evgeni Malkin, PIT

The Pittsburgh Penguins will be without their two best players to open the season, but we may see Crosby back before Malkin. The Penguins captain is dealing with a wrist injury, but he was a full participant at practice on Monday, but he’s going to need some additional time before he can make his season debut.

As for Malkin, There’s a real chance we don’t see him in the lineup before December. He’s recovering from knee surgery, and the timetable as of now is AT LEAST the first two months, so it could be longer. If you took a risk and drafted him, best to stash him away on IR and wait for more news towards the end of the calendar year.

Auston Matthews, TOR

The Maple Leafs will be without Auston Matthews for their first three games of the season due to a wrist injury. This is a huge blow to the team to be dealing with this injury right out of the gate, but you have to believe management wants to make sure that Matthews returns to the lineup at 100%, so some extra rest won’t hurt them this early. 

Alex Ovechkin, WAS

There is a real chance that Alex Ovechkin isn’t ready to start the season on Wednesday due to a lower-body injury. The Russian winger has been very healthy over the course of his career, but father time might be catching up to him. He’s still considered day-to-day, and head coach Peter Laviolette doesn’t believe this is a long-term injury. We should get more news over the next 48-hours, but fantasy owners should prepare themselves to be without him for at least one game.

Brady Tkachuk, OTT

It’s crazy that a team with the lowest payroll in the league is fighting with their best player over his next contract. Brady Tkachuk is most likely not going to be in the lineup for opening night, and as of right now, there is no sense that an agreement is on the horizon. Both parties want to get a deal done, but things haven’t progressed as hoped, so Brady could decide to play hardball and just sit until he gets paid. The Senators are a small market team, so they may just allow their best player to watch games from home. It’s not ideal, but at some point, someone is going to budge, and a deal will get done. For now, we sit back and wait.